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Sex and the City Open Call as SAG!

2009-08-20T17:00:00.000-07:00

So I went to the open call for Sex and the City 2. Quite frankly I didn’t even get the chance to even work once on “Sex and the City 1”, and really have no high expectations for this one. Since I just joined SAG, I thought I may as well put my membership to use. The great thing about being SAG is that you get the earlier call times. This of course can be to your advantage or not necessarily so much.

For one thing when you come earlier, you finish earlier. Sounds great but then you have the rest of the day twiddling your thumbs of boredom as there is nothing left to do with the day. Don’t get me wrong it was a wonderful experience to be able to go to the front of the line and not have to bake outside in the hot humid sun for over 5 hours.

Perhaps the fact that I am not used to the “red carpet treatment” is the reason that it was surreal to me. Having the limo drop you off is not a bad deal either! That is the "N" train limo from Astoria!

When I got to the line at about 9am, there were already over 200 Women in the line with barricades set up for TV news crews and reporters. I get there expecting to at least be in some kind of line. No line for me! I showed the gatekeeper my SAG number and immediately the doors opened into a lovely air conditioned hallway with the nice security guards greeting me and welcoming me as I walked down this red carpet until I got to the main room where there were chairs to sit down on.

I felt like a Queen who was just let out of her carriage. The Prince was there to greet me and says “No need to stand out in this yucky humidity my Queen and ruin your quaff! Please come on in to the comfortable air conditioned palace where we will pamper and treat you like the Queen you are!”

Ahh..yes this is what paying $2000.00 for a card will get you. Worth it I guess. It would be worth it so much more to actually get booked on something and make my money back.

That was it. I maybe sat down for about fifteen minutes, until the Woman came up to the microphone to let us know how the process would be conducted. Basically they took people row by row, took snapshots. We handed in out headshots and to the backdoor to be escorted out. Then out the back exit I went, not exactly Prince Charming, but better looking then Alfred E. Newman, a good friend and great fellow actor.

After that a bunch of us congregated to the nearest café in the area. It was kind of nice to see where the SAG people go and what all the secrets are. Now that I am in the “Cult” it feels good to be on the other side but a part of me still misses the suffering. How crazy is that??

After we finished our coffee, we went back to the line, not to gawk and point, but more to see where I used to be at one time and how far I have come. There were over a thousand people in the line at that point wrapped around two long Manhattan blocks. Just walking from the air-conditioned café out to the sweltering heat, made me fell yucky and gross. I have paid my dues. Now I am on the other side. I have arrived.

Still in the back of my mind I was thinking about Linda and how she would have been perfect for the lead role of Samantha in this movie. She would have come to this open call with me and taken it by storm. I miss you SO much Linda...especially times like this.

Sigh :(

Back To One!

female confused about how women are treated by casting directors

2009-07-03T07:29:00.000-07:00

The following is a letter written by one of my fellow cohorts who also worked on "Boardwalk Empire". The letter depicts the unfair treatment by casting and discrimination against Women in their late thirties working in this business:

A certain casting agency hired me for the new Martin Scorsesse project "Boardwalk Empire" for 3 days. They fitted me in a period costume, wanted my hair to be all one color,I had to be shorter than 5'5, and of white/European decent. They paid me SAG wages for the fitting, and I was under the impression I would be paid SAG wages for the days I was asked to work.

They then proceeded to pay me non-union for the day of work, and this was a long day (16 hours) and was a 500 dollar difference (bt. the Union & non-union actors). I complained to SAG, and they told me casting could do whatever they wanted, and that they had made a mistake and only kids would be waivered.

I thought that was ironic since I have a 5 year old, and am a single parent and need to pay a babysitter 10 dollars per hour when I work. This particular project centers around women in the work place, and women getting a respectable salary. I do not believe this is Martin Scorsese's fault, nor do I believe this is the production company's fault. But is the second time this casting agency has hired me for a particular look (white/European, short, all one hair color, 30's), given me SAG wages for the fitting and then not paid me SAG wages for a day of work.

Some of these casting directors seem to have lawless business practices. They seem to be prejudice against white women in their 30's. Certain people in the film industry have told me that white women in their 30's don't get waivers! Only pretty, young girls in their 20's.
I am an attractive reasonably young woman and would like to know what percentage of white women in their 30's are actually working on a daily basis on film and television projects in New York City like I do.

I am a member of Aftra. I understand that SAG does not have an open door policy like AFTRA does. I do not understand how women can continue to be discriminated against.
If anyone has any insight or complaints about casting agencies; or the random way waivers are given out please respond.

Julia S.East Village, New York City

Please feel free to comment in your support.

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A couple of Dicks in Prospect Park Day 1

2009-06-30T19:22:00.001-07:00

I got booked on a 2-day shoot to work on this new Bruce Willis movie called "A couple of Dicks" with Tracy Morgan of SNL and 30 Rock fame!It's a comedy about two cops whose adventures include locating a stolen baseball card, rescuing a woman, and dealing with gangsters and their laundered money.

The call time was for 7am to be in Wollman Rink parking lot in Prospect Park, Brooklyn. Having a 7am call time is actually normal and I left Queens at 6am which should have been plenty of time to get there.

I got to the subway by 6:10 and by this time, the rats have retired for the night and there are more people on the platform waiting. At this time there are more and more people going through the turnstile and waiting. Finally after 40 minutes, the "V" train appears out of the dark tunnel.

By the time I got to the "Q" train platform, it was already ten minutes to 7am. The only good thing about the "Q" is that it runs express through Manhattan and bypasses many stops. Goes to 14th street and then to Canal, through the tunnel and out across the Manhattan bridge with a clear view of the Brooklyn bridge, clear skies and the waking of the dawn with the sun rising.

Finally got to Prospect Park station and walked out on Lincoln Avenue where there was a homeless person outside the subway camping out with all their belongings. Kind of sad and "bummified" area :( That is until you get to the side of the park :)

The entrance is gorgeous with beautiful trees and green is everywhere. There were already joggers, bikers, and people walking their dogs on the path. I went down the path to Wollman rink area and walked to up to holding which was and outdoor tent. It was the perfect weather for this and part of the tent was shaded by the trees. I was about 15 minutes late though I didn’t feel bad as there were other people coming in behind me still.

I got my voucher and headed to the tent in the back. It was really humid in the tent area where the air conditioner tubes to cool down the tents were not working yet. By the time I got there, there was already a big lineup to get hair and makeup done and of course wardrobe.

I love the wardrobe line. You can bring the best outfit and yet they will give you what they believe you should be wearing. Or they will give you accessories to wear and you have to give your voucher in for an earring or a button.

Holding true to form and my own convictions of what a waste of time wardrobe can be, I of course totally avoid the wardrobe line. This is also for Linda. Linda would not go to the wardrobe line. Not the same when you do this type of capers alone, though in memory of Linda and how we were the “A-team of background”! I succeeded in not going into that line. I figured the dress I had on was approved on the last set I was on and by my friend Charles who has exquisite taste.

I did go into the long hair and make-up line though I figure might as well get my hair done and makeup to take pictures. I get into that hair and makeup line and I wait and wait and then wait some more. Just when I think it will finally be my turn, the fag hair guy looks into the line and totally bypasses me and goes and picks the young long-haired Russian blond instead of myself. I felt so rejected.

The worst part about it was that the hairdresser was gay! I can understand that they need to take the principal actors first, but she wasn’t a principal.
At first I was offended, and then when the other hairdresser looked to see how many people were in the line, she took me. Finally! Though the thing was that I was one of the last people in line and everyone was either finished or already on set.

After being rejected so many times in the past, you look at this as happening for a reason and sometimes delays like this work in your favor. When she finally did my hair, I got up to start to walk to set, but was told that myself and 10 other background actors were not needed for this scene.

That actually worked out to our advantage as we grabbed some chairs, sat outside under the shady trees and just relaxed. Meanwhile I was getting reports via text message that my friend was standing in her heels in the hot sun. I totally got the better deal. In fact we were not needed until after lunch. I was having such a great time that I couldn’t care less if I get used or not.

Lunch was called and because we were already by catering, we were the first in line as droves of people were coming from set. Since this was Henry’s Catering, the food was outstanding. Gourmet salads, meats, pasta dishes, flank steak, sword fish and cakes..oh yes the cakes!

After getting our fill everyone was called back to set and this was the first time that I was to see it. At first I was r is over reluctant to go and was thinking oh great the fun and know I’m going to have to work. I don’t come here to work. I come to these things to eat and socialize.

So I start slowly following the rest of the crowd as I had no idea where the set was. What a long walk. Over the grassy hills, through a tunnel, through a pathway, and then finally after all that to the building which was the “bird building”.

We get directed into the building and I thought for sure this would be some scene where I would to stand in high heels, in a black cocktail dress under the blazing sun. Well it was outside under the hot blazing sun but we were actually seated in a beautifully ornate wedding scene. The chairs were wrapped in lovely white mesh covering with pearls. Her is a picture of my Russian "Brighton Beach" friend posing on set:

The floral arrangements were magnificent and absolutely charming. The wedding altar also wrapped in lovely flowers was set in the middle right by the lake. I was seated on the bride’s side which was played by Michelle Trachtenberg. This wedding was so “Rich” looking, you felt like you were at another Donald Trump wedding. So much detail and decorating went into this gorgeous set making it feel so real.

The scene itself was simple, but it was done over and over and over again. Basically the priest is about marry this couple and then asks “who here is going to give this bride away”? Pause. The bride looks over at her Father played by Bruce Willis and he does not utter a word! That was it.

The thing that got tedious was sitting there in that hot 2pm direct sun. I had a shawl on and tried to block the sun in between takes. Still it was a lovely set and what added to the beauty was this family of swans came into the scene. Don’t know if they were trained to do this but these swans were right on cue every time the director called out “action”. The director by the way is Kevin Smith. You know this will be a great comedy movie. I tell you one thing about the swans if they were just local swans that were friendly, they should all get SAG waivers.

A few hours went by and while we were sitting there the skies were getting heavy and brooding with a thunderstorm likely to come down very soon. Sure enough, the rains came down and down and down. It was heavy rainfall. We all rushed in the building.

Bridesmaids, Weddings guest running into the building to take cover from the rain. It was about 6pm at this time and we thought for sure that they would call it a wrap. Well we were highly mistaken. What the movie people will do to do a scene. We sat there around the wedding tables inside which were also decorated gorgeously.

The PA keeps telling us to be quiet even though there is nothing going on. So we are quiet, but the one person who could not keep quiet and kept going on and on was none other than Tracy Morgan. That guy is always on. He was telling jokes and stories and being really loud. I tell you that guy is not acting. He is the real deal. I mean everyone was tired and wanted to go home and here he was like a ball of fire that could not be extinguished.

Finally the rain settled and there was a clearing in the sky. Thinking we would be walking back to holding now, I was mistaken as the grips were outside re-setting lights and bringing equipment back out to the deck. I was like “You got to be kidding”! All background was called back to set, but not in the seats we had before.

This was an entirely different scene. This was a scene after the ceremony and we were to grab the “fake drinks” and act like we were enjoying the party and talking and toasting. As we did this, they had a helicopter camera drive by us to capture this moment. The helicopter came by and took and aerial shot of all of us. This took about 5 takes and then we were wrapped. The director thanked us all and we were released.

So here I am in heels getting ready for the “Big Race” back to holding. There is a pack of us, yet I am still in the lead with a few. So we get to the path and then to the tunnel. HOLY CRAP WATER!!!!!

There was so much water from the rain that the path was obstructed by this pond in front of us. It was so deep that there was NO way you could walk through it. The only way out was to climb this bench and jump over it. It’s amazing how this can be done in heels and a black cocktail dress! Mind you I almost took a wipe out. If this big broad guy wasn’t in front of me to grab his shoulder, I would have fallen for sure and probably broke my neck and teeth for sure.

I got through that obstacle to the grass obstacle. Since it was still fresh and wet from the rain, I would run a little and then the heels of my shoes would get stuck like quicksand. A couple of times I was ready to leave the shoes behind and just got for it barefoot and all! Made it through that and got to holding on dry concrete. Since I had no clothes to return, I got into the checkout line and was one of the first ones out. You would be proud of me Linda!

I quickly changed into my regular clothes and headed back to Lincoln Avenue. Back to the Q train. Back across the Manhattan bridge. Back to Queens....

Back to one!

Boardwalk Empire Blues..An Open Letter to The production people at Boardwalk

2009-06-29T17:00:00.001-07:00

Dear Boardwalk Empire Production,

I have worked many years doing background work. I have experienced the bad,the good, and the ugly side of working on film and TV productions. Lately I have seen the more of the "ugly" in this business as of late in terms of being used for minimum wage.

It has been my understanding that if you work hard enough, that you will at least get a chance to get into one of the most sought after unions, SAG (Screen Actors Guild). Getting into a union like this one not only gives you credibility, but makes you feel like you have accomplished something. It's a dream that people like you and me aim to achieve.

I am not saying that I am aiming to be the next Julia Roberts or Nicole Kidman. What I am saying is I would like a little respect and some reward for my hard efforts in this business. Is that too much to ask?? Apparently it is and this was demonstrated on the set of "Boardwalk Empire". An HBO production with the pilot directed by the one and only, Martin Scorsese.

It was such an honor and privilege to work with Hollywood's finest directors, Martin Scorsese.The most ironic thing about this entire experience is perhaps the fact that the scene that I was in reflected upon the 1920's prohibition where Women were just given the privileges for the right to vote.

I was also involved in the Boardwalk scene itself. I have to admit that the scene itself was very impressive! It was a replica of the 1920's Atlantic city boardwalk. What was not that impressive was the catering and the fact that we worked on this set for 20 hours!

I understand that you need to get the shot completed as time is money. Though in this case I think that there should have been some kind of a raffle or a bump in pay for dealing with all those long hours. Just to show some appreciation for us background giving every little last bit of energy we have left.

Without background, you do not have a movie.

Sincerely,

Back to one.

Boardwalk Empire shoot in Brooklyn Directed by Martin Scorcesse

2009-06-10T08:42:00.000-07:00

This is the long awaited, over a month ago, booking for this HBO production, Boardwalk Empire to be directed by Martin Scorsese. I figured our call times would be super early. so it was no surprise when I got the official call times from Casting that it would be for 5:30am. Though there was a courtesy bus pickup in Manhattan over by Church and Chambers street. So the only problem would be to get to downtown area by 5am to catch the bus. Well I missed the bus.

Now I didn't miss the bus because I couldn't get up in the morning. In my still "Zombie-like" state, I got up and dragged myself out the door to the 4am subway, worst subway time. You have your regular rats during the day, but for some reason the 4am rats are extra special and hungry.

They are not afraid of you and will come right up to your bag if you even have a crumb left over from yesterday's cookie. These 4am rats are not dumb, they never waste their time with vegans knowing they are all skin and bones and either had one of those gross tasteless nature bars or organic bird seeds in their bag.

Yet as I am always on the defensive and prepared, I have my "whacking tool", and spray to get rid of these nasty demons. Little did I know at the time how the Rats would be such an integral focus on set later on that day.

Normally I wait for the train at that time for maybe 20 minutes tops before you see the lights shining through the dark tunnel. Thought 20 minutes went by. Then another 20 minutes. Then it was coming up to 1 hour. The clock was ticking and I kept looking at the time display. It was after 5am when the announcement came on saying that the trains are delayed due to flooding from the storm overnight.

I was thinking "great, this is just my luck"! I mean how many days prior have been storm free and the trains were running fine!" Figures the ONLY day that I have to get up for 4am, the subways have a huge delay. So this was the start of an already long day to come.

Finally the train comes, and I have to figure out a "plan B" to get there as the bus would leave by the time the "E" train would make it to the world trade area. I'm on the train at 46th stop and it is not moving. At least I'm on the train, I pondered. Ten minutes elapsed and on to Steinway street stop. There out of sheer coincidence, my friend Laura who just happens to be going to the same set as myself, sees me and joins me in this despair.

We were both in the same dilemma and figured the best route would be going to Time Square and catching the "Q" train to Church avenue in Brooklyn. The train came in about 5 minutes and since it was an express train, it only went to two stops in Manhattan and then over the bridge to Brooklyn. While over the bridge, I called up my friend to notify the PA that we would be self reporting now.

We made it to Church avenue and walked 4 blocks down and started seeing the film and crew trucks and walked to the church where holding was. We got there and signed in. There were not too many people there yet as the bus which we were supposed to get on, did not arrive yet.

I got my voucher and then headed to krafty. The catering company for this was TomKats. Not exactly the best catering for film and TV in my experience. It was the usual array with trays of scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage wheels, lox, and freshly squeezed juice station. Brought a couple of plates back to holding to share with other as the non-union breakfast was crap. A couple of stale bagels and coffee cakes with NO coffee!

On to the next joyous part of the day which I was dreading..the costume. There was already a huge line-up outside where the wardrobe truck was parked. Already over 3o of us standing outside of the truck waiting to get our costumes. Meanwhile, the overcast, brooding skies were promising more showers for the remainder of the day.

And Rain it did. Down , down and down came the rains....

It truly was a mess. Getting the costumes, then going into holding for another line-up to get hair and make-up done. All of that took about 4 hours until we were brought to set. With the booming thunder and lighting and buckets of rain. It was raining so hard it felt like you were in a car wash. Yet the SHOW MUST GO ON!

The PA shouts out the announcement to get to set. Walking down the streets and huddling with the umbrellas, we made it to set. We get there and of course they are still not ready to place us. So many of us are still waiting outside in the rains. Well I took the initiative and walked in with the SAG group and placed my self in the scene.

The scene was a "Temperance" Town Hall meeting. The meeting was led by an very conservative Woman. We all gathered as concerned Women in a coalition against liquor and the evil Men who drink liquor. In fact there was a sign up on the stage that said "Lips that touch Liquor Shall NOT touch ours!" The Woman gets up on the podium and begins reciting a poem about the evils of Liquor. It went something like this : "Liar, thief Vicious brute! Snake by day and sleeps with prostitutes....Demon rum...Liquor, thy name is delirium!!!!!!" I don't have the entire poem word for word, though you get the point.

She finishes up her speech and we applaud uproariously in agreement of her campaign to stop the "evil" alcohol and corruption of Atlantic City. Then we end the applause and she quickly introduces treasurer of this foundation and money powerhouse of Atlantic City, Nucky Johnson who is played by Steve Buscemi.

We all adore him because he the funding behind all of this and comes across as a gentleman who respects Women and Women's causes. Meanwhile he is a crook and being very deceptive. To win over the Women he starts going into this story about heartache and cold winters without any food for his family and of his absent Father who drank too much. He finishes his story and we all begin applauding and cheering him on as if he is our savior for this cause.

The speech was great and entertaining for the first couple of times, though he did it over and over and over again. Martin Scorsese would come out from the back room and talk to Steve and say "That was great Steve, let's do it again!"

It must have been exhausting for the actors, but even the background were dying. I was in one of the first five rows and I had on that heavy wool coat on. On top of it the coat was disintegrating and every time I would applaud, particles of the fur on the coat were coming loose and fluffing into my mouth and all over the place scattering the particles of fur. I was gagging every time and trying not to sneeze through out "That Speech"

To add to the misery, there was no air in that church as they had to shut down all venting systems to avoid any sound. Sitting there may sound like it was easy, but it was getting difficult. Our butts were getting sore, the costumes were totally uncomfortable and we all began fading and falling asleep down to our laps

It was really bad. Finally there was a break and I saw Steve Buscemi outside. You could tell he was really sick of "That Speech" and just wanted the day to end as bad as we did. Shortly after, Lunch was called. I was looking forward to it and was expecting a good lunch as it was an HBO production with Marty directing it.

Well I was wrong..Should have known with TomKats as the catering company, it wouldn't be that good. Sure enough it was an awful meal. There was only one salad bowl with wilted leaves and a pitcher of ranch dressing and no other selection. I though maybe there would be better selection down the table. Not so much. There were only 2 trays one with spaghetti and meatballs and the other was some vegetarian slop.

My dog gets better spaghetti and meatballs sauce than that! Yuck. Even the cakes/deserts were horrible.They had these "Quick Bake" do it your self frosting which crumbled as soon as you picked it up. It's the kind of cakes your 8 year old makes for a school bake sale. It was absolute garbage. First time ever on that set that I actually threw out the food!

Soon after the unsatisfying meal, the bullhorn/PA comes out to get back to one. So we head back to set. It's the same thing all over again where the "Temperance Woman" comes up first on the podium and delivers her speech.

Back to Steve Buscemi, and he begins his Speech though this time he improvs it and changes the words a bit to instead of "beating them with a stick", he goes on saying.."and then I took a brick and smashed the brains out of the them!" Much needed laughter.

Stay tuned to HBO and the release of "Boardwalk Empire" coming soon for what "That Speech was all about! "That Speech was brilliant and Steve Buscemi delivered it magnificently! Though I am not allowed to reveal it in it's entirety as I am under some contract, though I'm not sure what it is.

You see I am still non-union and I only got paid minimum wage to sit in that hall with a corset for 17 hours. Part of my internal organs have been bruised permanently as a result, yet I can't sue as I'm still a non-union nobody. I also can't post entirely my experience on this set. So much for freedom of speech.

The irony of this all is that the scene depicts Women during the Temperance movement where they just got the right to vote. Yet here we here in the year 2009, and not much has changed.

It seems to me that in this country "other" ethnic groups have more privileges and get paid

more if they speak of their grievances and scream out that they have been prejudiced against.

I apologize for this venting session as I had to re-do my blog as some people were not happy with my original piece. The point is that we should have been paid Union wages for our efforts. Enough said..moving along...

..... Back to sitting and sweating and itching until no body could take it anymore and we were wrapped! Finally back to the wardrobe truck to get out of the costumes. In fact I was stripping out of the costume and unzipping as I was walking towards the truck.

Back to get our voucher signed. Back to Church Avenue. Back on the Q train.

Back to one!

Bored To Death Boxing Scene Day 2

2009-06-10T08:41:00.000-07:00

I got home before midnight from the long day on "Bored to Death" and was exhausted. I still had to stay up long enough to hear the call times for "Day 2". I was relieved to hear that the call times for "Day 2" was a little better for 9:45 am.

The great thing about getting a 2-day booking is that you have already gone through hair and make-up the day before and don't have to go through that again, especially when it's a continuity scene. Also you don't have to carry a suitcase full of clothes and only need to bring what you wore the day before.

So I set out to Brooklyn one more time and got to the holding area. This time there were not too many tables available. Luckily my friend Robyn saved me a seat, though it was all the way in the back where the chairs and space was SO tight that even the thinnest person had toSqueZZe by. This was really annoying and on top of it, you have inconsiderate people who put their bags on the chairs.

Around 10am the PA was screaming out to get ready and that we would be going on set in about ten minutes. An hour later, we are all called to take our original positions where we sat the day before. Slowly we get to set and the crew and everything is already set up. I walk around to the side of the ring and my seat is being occupied by TedDanson himself. The PA shouts out "Everyone take your seats and BE quiet!" I gesture to the PA and tell him"I am not going to tell TedDanson to get out of my seat!"

Eventually the Second AD comes by, acknowledges the situation and ask Ted to take his first position. Today was the BIG fight with Ted and the Boss from the other team. I took my seat where Ted had just warmed it up for me. His first position was right in front of me with him standing by the side of the boxing ring waiting to get into the ring to box.

There is a scene in the boxing ring before he gets into his fight scene. So Ted is Standing there for hours...that is Ted Danson and his psoriasis! He had the psoriasis all over the back of his legs. It wasn't horrible looking and probably not that noticeable from afar, but up close it was not lovely.

Trying to focus on something else, I moved on from his skinny legs and moved to his butt. He was that close to me. I know that if Linda was sitting with me, she would have gone up and grabbed his ass for sure! Really miss Linda, and just can't stop thinking about her and her spirit. Though I did feel her presence there, for sure.

Moving along..

On with Ted Danson's scene... It begins with him and his competitor in the boxing ring doing their dance and throwing jabs and punches and doing many prat falls. In the first round Ted is taking the lead and we are cheering and rooting for him. Over and over and over again. It was exhausting for the two actors for sure, though it was as equally exhausting having to stand up every time to root and cheer and holler in excitement.

In the next round Ted is getting really exhausted though he knocks his competitor down. Sits down in the corner to gt water and toweled down and returns to the ring to fight some more. Having the confidence and stamina, he goes into the next round all charged up. They begin their dance and jabs here and there. All of a sudden the other guy throws such a heavy punch that sends Ted down, down to the ground on the floor. The referee counts down and Ted is OUT! The fight is over. Done! However, we were far from done that day for taping the show.

Far from done indeed....

It was already 5pm from being in their for that scene when we were called to lunch. What a relief. Though I couldn't actually run to holding as I was still in those heels. Made it to holding to wait in the lunch line where there were already 50 people ahead of me. I felt like"I Linda was here, we would be in the front of the line!" Oh well I made the best of it. Though this catering service, "Henry's Catering" was so gourmet and SO good, that they kept coming out replenishing the trays of food. What food they had!

Everything from Mussels, Calamari Salad, spinach with strawberry salad, baked ziti, walnut cranberry stuffed chicken breasts, brisket, lasagna..I mean the list goes on. It was like a wedding banquet feast! Truly the best catering around. That crappy "TomKats" catering could take a lesson on how to make and serve food from Henry's catering for sure.

If all that food wasn't enough, the deserts were to die for. There were 4 different types of cheesecakes, chocolate cake, tarts, and my favorite of all time..crumbles Oreo cookie cake!YUMSTERS!!! I must have gained a few pounds just looking at it. I grabbed a small piece and it just melted. It was Orgasmic!

Well that "orgasm" was short lived as we were called back to set. I was hoping that we were half way done, well I was wrong. At that point only the people who were in the primary scene were asked back to set. The rest of us were being drained from the waiting around and waiting and more waiting back in holding. Mind you at times I rather be in holding than sit on set where you have to be quiet.

So while in holding people talk and either you get information that is valid or you just sit around talk about nothing. The only relevant bit of information was when this young Asian American girl was talking about her experiences on "Sorcerers Apprentice", that Nicolas Cage movie which IS cursed!

There was a scene in Canal Street and the scene was for some Chinese New Year. So of course they wanted Asians for this scene. Well the thing is the majority of the Chinese who live at Canal street are undocumented workers. On top of it, the ones who did get hired and had legal working papers brought their entire family to set to hoard all the food from catering. So in droves they were pilfering all the bananas, cakes, and bagels to take home. I mean Chinese don't eat bagels??

To make matters worse..hhehhehe...these Chinese who HAVE NEVER worked as background and could barely speak English..messed up the entire scene SO badly that they had to re-do the entire 4-night shoot ALL over again. Gee.. I guess that must cost money to do.

Yes..I am still angry over the fact that I DID not get the final call-back when I auditioned for this movie for the role of the Russian Woman. Though I have to admit, this bit of news made me feel better.

After that conversation, there were a few people that were asking me about what happened to Linda. So I had to re-live all that again to explain to people. Then I get some bizarre stories how this one person says she felt Linda's presence through her TV set... I was like I had enough and reallywanted to leave at this point.

But NO! There was much more torture to come...

Now everyone gets called back to set and of course we go just to stand outside in cocktail dresses and heels in the chilly winds. After an hour of that joy, we are asked to go inside. Of course they are not doing anything but blocking thescene.

Clearly we were not even needed, and the PA send us up to the dusty balcony upstairs as a holding area so we could be close by and be at their beckon call. I was getting really perturbed and noticed that several people had left already. I thought they may still need me as I was the group closest to the front.

Hours went by and know I was getting hungry as many of us were. My friend Simon and I stepped outside and saw there were over 100 boxes of pizza outside on the table. We approach the table and we are quickly halted.

Angry and frustrated, Simon and I started to walk back to holding, got changed, papers signed out and went to to catch the G train. IT was already 2am by the time I got home. Back to Queens,

Back To One

Bored to Death Boxing scene Day 1

2009-06-03T03:29:00.000-07:00

SO it's really late Tuesday night and the call times were finally released at 11pm at night. You would think this mean a decent call time of 10 am, not so much. The call time was for 8:30 am. out in Brooklyn. I guess it could have been worse like the last time when we were out in Brighton Beach which takes an hour an a half to get to.

According to Google search, the commute to this area in Brooklyn known as "Clinton Hills" would take an hour an a half. I can see that because the "G" train which is a train that only goes crosstown through Brooklyn and Queens has been called the "Ghost train" for how long it takes to come. However, I made all my connections and got to the holding area in record time.

In fact it was as bad as I thought. I got off the train and I got around the corner and there was craft services. So I grabbed a couple of pre-made breakfast sandwiches and headed inside this church where holding was to get signed in.

I get into holding and I see my dear friend and mentor, Robyn at a table already and saving a spot for me. I sit down and there is another lovely Lady by the name of Cara sitting there and she came out all the way from Connecticut to get to this shoot! I immediately introduced myself to her and commended her for being such a trooper. Though I was shortly called away and summoned by several other cohorts who wanted to speak to me. Cara, was so impressed of how much in demand I was that she "christened" me as "The Mayor of Holding!" What a great title! I was SO honored.

With all this going on, I could not excuse the fact that where Robyn chose to sit and save a seat for me, there was a dime on the table staring at me. I recall Linda telling me that she would see these dimes in strange places all the time and it meant her friend was thinking about her. I mean normally people see pennies on the street.

Though this dime was strategically placed on that table. I asked around if that dime belonged to anyone, no one claimed it. I believe it was Linda saying "Hello" and dropping by. Soon after, the dime disappeared, yet there was no one around at the time. Strange but I felt it was her.

Moving along..

The entire morning was consumed with getting our wardrobe checked to get approved and to get hair and make-up done. I went into the wardrobe line and I knew I would be okay. I had this great cocktail dress that was recently bought to go to a wedding. I go to wardrobe and I got the "thumbs up" of approval! Great on to the make-up wardrobe line.
So I am standing in that line, behind 2o other Women to get the makeup and hair. Finally it's my turn and I get called to sit in the "make-up chair". The makeup girl actually remembered me from another shoot. That was cool. At first she was like "Well they tell you to come hair and make-up ready". I was like "well I can't do makeup as well as you do..and besides I am "The Mayor of Holding!"

So that line went well and I was about to go into the "hair line". The hair designer as they call them, glanced over at me and said "You're fine!" No I wasn't! I was really upset as my makeup looked great, yet I get rejected in the "hair line!" I couldn't believe this mockery! My hair is "Never Fine!" I have frizzy, curly , hair that always need some polishing. So to be turned down was a bit insulting and upsetting. I mean this is why I come to this gigs to get free makeup and hair-do! I mean how can you turn down the "Mayor of holding!"
At that point they were calling a "select group" or as I call them "Suckers" to go to set. This was before the "Establishing shot". In my experience I figure I would rather be sitting in a holding area and be able to talk than to be on set where you are told every second to "Be Quiet" and have to do the same thing a thousand times over.

In fact we had So much fun in holding. The best part was that my musician and dance instructor friend , Lawrence was there! I am an awful dancer. In fact I can't dance at all. Still Lawrence took it upon himself to select me from sitting down and up to the floor to do a little tango! I was a little embarrassed, being the fact I can't dance. Though Lawrence was such a great instructor that he helped me through it and I didn't make a fool of myself.

After a while I got exhausted and my friend Robyn took over on the "dance floor" in holding. Our festivities soon had to end as the catering crew were coming into bringing in tables to set up for lunch. Our dance floor and dancing session was soon shut down.

As they were setting up the tables for lunch, the PA comes into the room and asks for everyone to come to set. I was like "Oh great" does this mean I have to work now?? I didn't come here to work! The only reason I even come to these sets is to socialize and eat!"

So the PA comes in the room in this overly dramatic "Rush, Rush"! Hurry up they need you now." RUN!" Of course I take my time, go to the bathroom, get a snack, make a phone call, read War and Peace, and of course by the time I get to set, there are still people outside in the chilly air wearing dresses, waiting to be called inside. Eventually the rest of the people get called and I am not looking forward to this as I am in heels and I really don't want to be standing for 14 hours!

Once I got in there, I took it upon myself to find a chair to sit down. The PA's were still placing people around the scene which was evolved around a boxing ring. At the time I didn't know that I actually got myself prime piece of real estate of where all the action would occur.

It;'s taking forever to get everyone else situated. Finally after about an hour with nothing going on ,save for being told to "Shhh" and be quiet, the actors came on set and the scene started to come alive.

The scene was in the boxing ring. The match was between two rivalry advertising companies, "GQ and Edition". Our side of the ring where we were sitting, were rooting for "Team Edition".The other side was rooting for "Team GQ". Our Boss was "George" played by Ted Danson and his teammate, Jason Shwartzman.

Jason was first up in the ring going up against a heavier guy from "Team GQ". They start doing their "boxing dance". JaB@#! HIT% PUNCH%%! HeadLock! It looks as if the heavier guy will be taking down Jason, but in the end Jason become the winner! Rah!! We all cheer. After he is declared the winner, he goes over to his girlfriend and wants to celebrate his victory. She kisses him on the cheek and then says in a very coy sweet voice"I would love to hang out with you but I have yeast infection!" He is puzzled? She continues..."I'm going out with my friend now but promise to drink a lot of cranberry juice!!!" She steps off the stage. He is left feeling stunned and dejected.

This may seem like it was an easy, simple and quick scene..not so much. The scene was done over and over and over again. The worst part had to have been the boxing match itself. How tired those guys must have been, fake jabbing and throwing fake punches which was all choreogrpahed. Never mind them we, the spectators had to stand up every time Jason was winning. Standing in heels over and over again is not fun. More poor toes were killing me by day's end.

Sure enought it was one of those days on set that you thought would never end...then came day 2....the day that DID NOTend!

Stay tuned...

Back To One

Sean Penn's Movie "Fair Game"

2009-05-27T15:35:00.000-07:00

I got booked on this movie "Fair Game" by Desiree. The wardrobe instructions sounded straight forward from production, though ended up being confusing. This was the original posting:

WARDROBE:PLEASE NOTE, WARDROBE IS VERY IMPORTANT FOR THIS SCENE- PLEASE READ THE WARDROBE INSTRUCTIONS FROM THE COSTUME DEPT.
Sc 165, 166, Forum in Seattle Summer / WEAR TO SET, BRING AN OPTION

Overall, this takes place in Seattle in the summer. We definitely don't want it to look like NYC N.D. people: Casual, outdoorsy, not black and dark like NYC. Softer colors and lighter neutrals. Light layers. Again, it's summer!!!!Protesters: casual and with character. Light layers. Not dark tones of clothing.Granola types: earthy, outdoorsy, hippie types. Not Woodstock feeling, but definitely with a crunchy vibe.----------

What in the world is a crunchy type anyways??

My friend on facebook thought it referred to people who eat granola and such. If you have one of those string-crochet bags that people bring to the store for environmental reasons... Okay so I packed up clothes that I thought was what they were looking for and headed to set.

Our call time was for 11 am to be at Lehman college. I left Queens around 10am and got on the number 4 train heading to the Bronx. On route to catch the train, I see a dime placed right in front of the subway doors where I entered.

This dime represents Linda, I'm sure of it. I recall Linda telling me that she would find these dimes all over in obscure places and that it meant her friend was thinking of her.I have been finding many of these dimes as of late.

The commute itself was rather quick. The train skips many stops on the express tracks then, it slows down a bit when it gets to the Grand Concourse in the Bronx. Once it passes that, the next couple of stops are local stops. Then it goes out of the tunnel to the elevated tracks where you are outside again.

The reason I am mentioning this is because we passed by the 161st stop which is Yankees Stadium. Passing by this reminded me that this was the first time I am working on background since Linda's death and burial. I know she wanted to be cremated and have her ashes scattered on Yankee fields. Though she was buried with her favorite blanket of her favorite team. I knew this was going to be a difficult day.

Moving forward....

I get to the front entrance of Lehman College to this Armory like, majestic entrance. I walk along the path to get to the music building where we were directed to go to check in. When I got there, not too many people had arrived yet which was great because it meant plenty of seats to choose from. Luckily my friend Robyn was there already and she had a seat for me. I got to the table and I told my friend what happened to Linda. We saved a seat for her. I could feel her spirit was there with us. Still it wasn't the same. It never will be again. Sigh.

Slowly people were getting to holding and the once empty holding area was now getting so packed that people were scrambling for seats. When someone came by to take the chair that I saved for Linda, I told them " this seat is taken!"

It was the usual setup, though they had no breakfast set up, so I was starving by the time it was noon. We went to the crafty truck and all they had was fruit loops and stale coffee. So we had to wait it out for lunch, which wasn't until 4pm.

In the meantime, there was the much dreaded wardrobe line, which if Linda was there , I would have totally avoided this line. Though they were checking off numbers, so I had to go into the line. I brought my options, which was a pair of khaki cargo pants and a kind of hippie tops with a few flowers on it. The wardrobe looks at me and asks for my number.

I tell her my number and she says "This won't do at all!" Then I thought she was going to give me a complete wardrobe change. Instead she gives me a white hand knitted "Granny" sweater. It was ridiculous. I was really upset about getting this granny sweater. Do I look like a granny?? How insulting!! Well at least I only got the sweater and got to wear my own pants, which meant a quick change at the end of the day.

On with the scene..

We were directed to another building where the first scene of the day was set. The first scene was actually set for Ohio State University. The colors to reflect this was reds and hoodies and jeans for some and a faculty member look for others. So why in the world I got a "Granny Sweater" I have no ideal. What even sucked more was that it was getting really warm in that gymnasium that we were in. After a few hours sitting there, you start shvitzing.

At this point nothing is going on, we take seats on the bleachers and then the Ad takes a look at some of us and starts placing people to how he "sees" the scene. I got moved to the other side but still was on the first 2 rows which was great because I was in no mood to climb up to the top of that gym. Plus this would mean it would take longer to get back to holding to get to lunch.

Finally they are ready to shoot. Sean Penn comes out and walks onto the platform they had set up in the middle of the room where he could say his speech. A few of us were shouting out "Hey Spicolli" referring to his character on "Fast Times at Ridgemont high! Though that character he did back in the 80's where he orders pizza in the classroom was like a lifetime ago compared to the seriousness of this character. Here he portrays Joe Wilson, husband of Valerie Plame, who was brought into the media after a CIA leak and scandal.

He grabs the microphone and begins his speech. He speaks in the microphone and there is clearly too much feedback and the sound engineer has to take care of that problem. Though this was not the only problem of the day with sound.

As Sean got into character and was reciting his speech.."How many of you know the sixteen words of the state of the union address?" One person raises their hand. Then he continues in character..."How many of you know my wife's name?" Several people slowly raise their hands. He continues..."How can you know one and not the other???" ....he continues then before he can the number 4 train runs outside on the elevated tacks right by the school and it interrupts his speech, the director yells "CUT!"

Back to one..Reset! Sean starts his speech again, and the number 4 train yet again passes by and disturbs his speech, "CUT!" yell the director. This goes on for several times and every time you can see Sean getting even more angry with each passing train. Finally Sean breaks out of character and shouts out to all of us "locations is Fired!"

They took so many takes that they would have to cut and paste in editing. Time to move on as we still had another scene to do. We already had lunch and it was a decent array of salads, chicken and beef. It was okay. Average catering. Though the best part had to have been the brownies and Oreo cookie crumb cake.

On to the next scene...

The next scene was in the wardrobe description which was all about the "Crunchy granola types". I still had my ugly "Granny sweater" on. Ugh! Our second set was in this huge school auditorium. Big enough to have a Broadway play or an orchestra up on that stage. Probably seated about a thousand, I would guess.

This scene was set in Seattle Washington. It was a rally scene and there were over 500 background which included actual students of Lehman who participated for free to be in this movie. Sean Penn was up on the stage sitting at a table with 4 other diplomats all there for this cause.

This scene was actually at the conclusion of this Seattle conference where Sean is wrapping up his speech. At this point it has been established that his speech has all of us heated up. So as he is in conclusion of his speech we are all ranting, raving, with a roaring applause to his words and what he has to say.

As it was a conclusion, we had to get up from our seats and leave as people do after a rally of this nature. Some of us were directed up to the stage to shake hands with "Joe Wilson. Others were directed to exit the auditorium and keep walking out the door. Just as some of us made it to the door, the director shouts out "CUT! Back to One!" This went on for take after take after take. Up the stairs, heading to the doors and then "CUT!" It got to a point where I had enough.

I have to say that I was sitting there alone with nobody that I knew. Everyone else was sitting in the front or in a different section. I was the only "old" person sitting in this section with all these young vibrant kids who are hip and in fashion and I am there wearing this "granny sweater"! I really felt out of place. Truly I was missing Linda because I just know we would have skipped out of this scene or at least had some fun with it. Being alone there was just such an awful feeling.

Finally I couldn't take anymore and on the next round of walking up the stairs to leave the auditorium, I kept on walking. Initially I was just going to use the bathroom, though I ended up staying behind as I knew I wouldn't be missed and no one probably would miss me.

In the bathroom I met up with my friend Joyce. I haven't seen her in SO long. In fact she was one of the first background person that became my friend when I started this crazy lifestyle. We met on the Robin Williams movie "August Rush" back in 2004. We both decided to stay behind and wait it out as the call for "It's a wrap" was near approaching.

It was funny because this is something Linda would have done with me for sure. What was strange about this was that while I was feeling awkward in that auditorium, I could swear I saw Linda sitting on Sean Penn's knee!

So Joyce and I sat it out and sure enough they called "It's a wrap". Soon droves of background people were storming out of the auditorium to run to holding to get checked out. I of course was the first one to return that ugly "Granny sweater" and got signed out first too.

Joyce got stuck in the wardrobe line. Not as fast as Linda..nobody will ever be! Still it was nice to have her there. It was as if Linda didn't want me to be alone and sent her to me in a way. I don't know. Maybe I'm speculating.

After I singed out. I gave my usual "High Five" to the A-team, even though one team member is out. Still she was there. I felt it. I left the set and raced alone and raced back to the subway, back to catch the 4 train. Passing Yankee Stadium. Back to Queens.

Back to One!

Fitting for Martin Scorcesse's new HBO production

2009-05-05T15:58:00.003-07:00

I was on the set of the Samsung Commercial when I got the call to get booked for this. The Samsung shoot was one of those miserable sets where it's pouring rain, it's an exterior and yet they want you to run around in business suits, drop your umbrella, do crosses and pretend that it's not raining.

Out of the blue I get a call from Grant Wilfley Casting, one of the biggest casting houses in New York. The message said to call up and see if I could come for a fitting for the new "Martin Scorsese" HBO production, "Boardwalk Empire". She asked me if I could make it to Brooklyn the following day and what time slot I would like to go.

I told the girl at "Grant" that I would like to take the afternoon call time for the fitting. My time was for 3pm to get to York St, which is the first stop into Brooklyn on the "F" train.

I get there to the subway stop with ten minutes to spare. I got outside and spotted another background person..you can always tell who is background. It's that certain background look of being puzzled, dragging a suitcase, and looking around aimlessly for a van.

So I approached this young lady, who obviously was going the same way I was. I introduce myself and within a couple of minutes, the van pulls around the corner. The driver pops his head out of the window and aks "Boardwalk?" We were like "Yes!" Quickly we hopped into the van.

The driver of the van clearly had a long, exhausting day of transporting people back and forth from the subway to the warehouse location. As we got on, this Woman that I know was talking his ear off and you could tell the driver wanted to throw her off the van a few miles back.

After a few twists and turns around the Brooklyn Navy Yards area, we get to this shipping and receiving dock. There was NO way I would have been able to find this location. We get up to the loading area, up to the freight elevator to the 8th floor. This elevator was one of these old ones where you had to grab this belt and pull down the doors yourself, then press and hold a button down. So glad I wasn't in that elevator alone.

The door opens up to this warehouse and racks and racks of wardrobe for this movies. I get to the front desk to sign and get my voucher. Next step this gay guy approaches me and tells me to take off my bulky sweater so he could take measurements. So I stand there with my arms stretched out and he gets out his measuring tape.

He measures my waist, hips, girth, bust and everything in between. There were over 4o measurements taken! Then it was off to the dressing room to get fitted. The part I really dread. I get to the dressing room and the guy tells me to disrobe and get down to my pantyhose and bra only.

Moments later, a Woman comes in and starts examining me and my measurement chart, then dashes out to get a costume. She comes back with a camisole and a corset!!! She tells me to take my sports bra off. I did this with much hesitation and figure well she is a Woman and this guy here is gay. So off came the bra and on with the camisole. That was actually easy in comparison to the next step. Getting that corset on!

First they had a medium for me and they pulled, stretched, it out and barely got the clasps on. I was dying. I couldn't breathe. I told them this wasn't going to work, so they brought another one in a large size. This one too barely fit around me. The gay guy had his knee up against my back to pull this thing and secure it on me. I was like "Wow, it must have really sucked to be a Woman in the 1920's!" Also I didn't know they didn't wear bras and just let the boobs flop around like that!

Once they got that on me, the rest of the costume piece together nicely, save for this skirt. This skirt was really awkward as it did not have a zipper on the side or in the back. The zipper was this strange 3/4 on the side past the hip. It took wardrobe a while to figure this one out. After I got the skirt on, they gave me a shirt, a sweater, boots, and a long heavy itchy fur coat!

It was something else. I felt like I was transported to the 1920's. It was a treat to be in such a museum piece, but even standing there for the time I was there, I already couldn't breathe and the coat was irritating me. I don't know how any of us will handle the day of the shoot wearing this for 17 hours. It will be an interesting day for sure.

So I got undressed, back into "2009 clothes" , got signed out and headed back to the elevator and heading back to Queens.

Back to One!

Addendum :At the time when I got the call I felt privileged and lucky that I got this call. Finally I get cast for being pale and Irish lookin. Though after going through this fitting, I'm not sure this set will be that much fun.

Samsung Commercial

2009-05-05T15:58:00.001-07:00

This was a last minute unexpected booking for a Samsung commercial. I got a call from casting , late Saturday night. At first I thought it was a mistake, because I don't even remember submitting for a Samsung commercial. Our call time was scheduled for 1pm to be at one State street over by the Staten Island Ferry.

It was a really rainy day with the rains coming down in buckets. I was like "Great this is going to be an exterior shoot in the rain, wonderful!" I took the "R" train from Queens and I didn't have to transfer as it went all the way to Whitehall street/ South Ferry stop. I left the house on time, but I still managed to get there late as the train had so many delays. Though that didn't matter too much as nobody was there yet. At least the crew and the director, who we kind of need to shoot this commercial.

Apparently we were told by a nice Asian PA that they were delayed at the first location. When she got there we signed in and got out contracts to sign. Plus they cmae in with food! Okay so it wasn crap. They came in with a few boxes of cold pizza and junk food was provided. Everything from skittles to Doritos. Guess I should be thanksful we got anything. Still way better than the cheap catering on the Julia Roberts movie, "Duplicity" which bombed!

Moving along...

Our holding area which was a defunct, asbsestos laden area in midst of construction and repair, was dirty and very dusty! The floor was this cement grounding immersed in Polly filla dust. All of us were wearing nice business suits, some really expensive ones. The cement dust was so thick that you could walk all the way to Staten Island and leave a trail of your footprints!

It was so bad that once you left the area, and went into the nice lobby, you would leave imprints all over the place. It was like walking into a room filled with white flour. At least flour is natural, I'm sure the white dust in that area was NOT organic!

On top of it our seating area...well there was no seating area at this time. All there was to sit down on was the siding where there once was a functional heating unit and looked liked it was on the verge of collapsing. Guess what...It did!

My friend Bill was sitting down on this siding to fill out his release form. Mind you there were a few people sittng on it as well. Within seconds of him having a seat.."CRASH!"$%# BOOM!*** THUD!!!&*%$# The entire thing came down with a few people falling down with it and becoming immersed in that white powdery cement dust. What a mess.

After this vision of destruction fell before us, we helped my friend Bill back up. His coat was full of this white dust. Then the maintenance person came by to take a look at it. He didn't do much but look at it and tore the rest of it down.

Soon this fiasco was over and on with the actual shoot of the day. It was still pouring rain and the crew got to this location all soaked and wet. They unloaded their trucks and had plastic over their cameras. Shortly after we were summoned from inside that dusty mess to go outside into the pouring rain.

In the scene we were to walk across the street from sidewalk to sidewalk and give everyone that passes us a "High Five!" It was pouring rain at this point and when the director called "Background Action", we had to drop our umbrellas and walk into the scene. In the pouring rain, through puddles of water and flooding in pot holes, crossing the street, getting soaked and "high fiving" each other as we passed along. I was like are they going to CGI out the rain??

What a miserable mess. Well at least the rains washed off all the cement dust! Of course the rains got even heavier with each passing. To make matters even worse there were some "background newbies" or the "Retards of Background" who thought they would be discovered and would look and jump directly in front of the camera. I was like " what retards"!

Finally after we were nicely dripping soppy wet, they call "Check the Gate!" I thought this meant a wrap. Though it wasn't, they still had another scnen. This one was in the lobby of that building whihc was cleaner and had marble floors. So crew sets up the lights in the lobby and while we are waiting back in holding sneezing and trying to dry off in the dusty room.

I sit down in one of the chairs they put out and the PA comes around selecting people. I did my "Pretend I'm sleeping" routine and she passes by me not selecting me. Works every time! LOL.

Though there was really no "safety zone" sitting in that dusty mess. After coming fresh from the rains, the dust stuck to your clothes like glue. Also I could feel the residue of dirt in my teeth. It was gross. I couldnt wait to go home and take a shower.

Thsi miserable mess lasted for a few hours and finally we were called to "Wrap!" I got in the line and as usual I am one of the first people to do so. I got int line to get paid. The best part of the day of course was getting paid cash! Okay so it was worth it after all. I got my money and went back outside, where the rains finally cleared up. I went back to the subway to catch the "R" train to get back to Queens.

Back to One!

Bored to Death in Brighton Beach Day 2

2009-05-03T12:03:00.001-07:00

So this was the second day booked on this show in Brighton Beach. After yesterday's experience I was dreading coming back. Though I got this booking from one of my favorite casting people, and I wasn't going to cancel if I was still on the list.

The voice mail message was released at midnight when I got home from "day 1". I thought for sure that my number was going to be called on the list to "not return" as I was NOT used at all the day before. As the message went on and he was reading the numbers that should not return, I barely made the cut for the numbers they needed, though I was IN! This meant I had to immediately get to bed so I could get up early and get there on time.

I woke up at a decent time to leave Queens and to get to Brooklyn. I did not want to be late and sent home.I gave myself much more extra time to get down to the area. In fact I got there too early. The doors to the restaurant where holding was located, was gated and locked and shut down.

I thought that I slept in and I was an entire day late as there was no sight of anybody there. No crew, no PA's, nobody. It felt like one of those Twilight Zone Episodes where there was some nuclear explosion the day before, this man was in a safe bomb shelter avoiding the explosion. He wakes up the next day to go outside only to find everything is shut down, and he is the only person alive.

Finally after about 15 minutes, someone came and opened the gates. I was relieved and was actually one of the first few people there to check in. So we checked in, and went to the breakfast truck to get some personalized omelette's at the "omelet station". Yes Thank-you HBO!

We returned to holding, sat down had our breakfast and went to wardrobe to get the dresses we were assgiend to wear the day before. I thought, "Great, another day of just sitting around and being treated like I'm in kindergarten class and be told what to do by a power hungry PA!" Well I was wrong..it turned out to be classic background day with much fun and surprises.....

After we got dressed, there was no time to wait around and we quickly got rushed to set. So we get to the set which was inside the Russian restaurant and of course we rush to get there only to wait outside in our dresses and heels on the boardwalk platform, where it was really chilly and overcast. Still at this point I was thinking " I will get through this!"

Finally we get directed to get on set and quietly proceed. We finally get into the restaurant and the tables were arranged differently. At first the PA is placing people, and then she gets called to do something else. We are just standing there feeling stupid and decide to "place ourselves" and sit down at this table which at the time we did not know that it would be the main shot for the day.

So my friend and I sat down and didn't expect anything and the PA didn't come around to throw us out of our seats. Shortly after we get situated, they bring out the principal actor, Jason. He ends up sitting directly across the table from where we are sitting! Nobody says anything about us sitting there and they begin the scene.

The scene was at this Russian restaurant. There are ten of us at this table eating, drinking, saluting, and just having a grand 'ol time. We are pretending to clink glasses and everyone is drunk and full of life. Jason's character is drunk and he is getting along with everyone and getting real chummy. This cute Russian waitress approaches the table to offer a plate of deserts.

He gestures to the waitress and asks her a question about a certain lady that sings there at the club to see if she is available for him to date. The waitress nods she will be here tomorrow night. Jason's' character is a happy drunk and of hearing this news, he gathers everyone at the table to raise their glasses and salute in Russian. So we all raise our glasses and cheer "Nazdrovje"!

What a great comic actor he is. IT was so much fun. From the get go, he is cracking jokes and making everyone feel important being there.The funniest part was that this much older woman was sitting right beside him and did not get any of the jokes or gestures he was making. Most of the jokes were the fact that this woman was clueless to what was going on.

On with the next scene.....

As if that wasn't enough fun, the best time was really yet to come. This time everyone was called to go to the middle of the dance floor of the restaurant. I was like oh great a dance scene. "Well Canada Anne doesn't dance!" While the crew took a break the AD was figuring out the scene. They were on the side, so my friend and I thought this was the opportune time to get up on that stage and get some poses!

The cool thing was that the microphone was one of those 1950's style they used for radio back in the day. I went up and did a quick few bars of the song "fever" and in my Marilyn Monroe pose. It felt great! Though it was for only a few moments. Even the bitchy "PMS PA" saw me up on the stage and didn't even say a word and just let me have my moment.

It was a short moment and it was done when the Director called everyone to the dance floor. We were instructed to form a circle after we dance a little and Jason would be in the center. In the circle Jason and his drunk Russian male partner would dance. And they danced. they danced Wildly, kicking their legs up. Doing the Russian dance.

Then it got even wilder. They got two chairs and they both sat down and were lifted up into the circle. It was just like going to a Jewish wedding. While the two guys were being lifted up we are all cheering and roaring and applauding.They had a bottle of vodka and were toasting each other while it was spilling all over the place. A couple of wild rounds of this and WOW what a day.

I was exhausted just being a part of it. Then we were told to go back to holding. I thought for sure that meant lunch and then we would have another 10 hours to go. Well I was gladly mistaken. Got to holding and "it was a wrap!" Yippee.

Got changed in my street clothes and went back to the "B" Train.

Back to one.

Bored to Death In Brighton Beach day 1

2009-05-03T12:01:00.001-07:00

I finally got booked on this new HBO series called "Bored To Death!" I got this booking through Desiree for a 2-day shoot. Yippee! When you get two days guaranteed work, it is awesome because on the second day you now how to get to the location and don't have to lug around a suitcase of clothes again.

Of all the shows I have been one, this one sounds most promising with the concept and set of characters as described below from: http://www.buzzsugar.com/1748476

Jason Schwartzman excites HBO.No, the actor who was once Max Fischer isn't yawning every time he channel-surfs past the network that once brought you The Sopranos (at least not that we know of). Bored to Death is just the name of the network's new half-hour comedy pilot that just cast Schwartzman in the lead.
It doesn't sound boring at all.The show centers on Schwartzman's character, Jonathan, a 30-something struggling writer living (and drinking heavily) in Brooklyn. After he breaks up with his girlfriend, he decides to refashion himself as a private detective in the vein of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett heroes. According to the Hollywood Reporter.

So it was appropriate that the scene that I was booked on took place in "Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. Also known as "Little Kiev!" I have never been to Brighton Beach and always wanted to go. So I hopped on the "Q" train which I caught on 57 th street in Manhattan and I was on the train for about and hour and a half!

Our call time was originally for 11:00am, and now I knew why. Though that didn't matter because I was still about 40 minutes late on arrival and thought for sure I was going to sent home by casting. Though I wasn't and I got my voucher to fill out and was sent to wardrobe.

This was one of those sets where I could not hide from wardrobe and had to change and accept what I was given in return for my voucher as collateral. This usually sucks and I always avoid this because it means an extra line at the end of the day, but with a set of 80 people, it wasn't that bad. In fact I kind of enjoyed dressing up and putting on a dress for a change.

The worst part of the day had to be the weather. Unlike a few days ago with the unseasonably warm temps, it was freezing cold out on the boardwalk that day. We were all dressed up and were wearing high heel shoes. I brought my flip-flops to walk out on the boardwalk. A couple of women did get their heels stuck walking form the holding area to the Russian restaurant we were shooting at.

Speaking of shootings..or at least a drug deal gone wrong..We all eye witnessed a "Brighton Beach boardwalk bust!" Within second two police cruised and a helicopter above captured and seized the "boardwalk miscreant" in handcuffs and stuffed him in the NYPD car. Since it was close to where the set was, some of us thought that this was the scene we would be involved in.

Th day started out exciting with that scenario, though the entire rest of the day was a complete bust and a huge disappointment for myself because I never got to be on set and was scolded out by this bitchy PA who was on the rag to "Not talk, or you're out!" Meanwhile, everyone is talking around me and they are not even shooting anything. Really tired of pissy attitudes from power hungry twenty-something PA's. I don't need that crap.

It was bad enough that this little bitch kept looking over me and gave me the evil eye as I was sitting there as quiet as a church mice and freezing as it was really bone chilling cold in there with no heat on at all. Finally I couldn't take anymore and went back to holding and changed my clothes.

About and our later, around 11pm, the other PA came to holding and was getting papers ready. It was a wrap. I was So relieved. It was nighttime now, and we headed to the subway to catch the "Q" train back. That took an hour and a half for me to get back to Queens. Tomorrow would be the same thing. Day 2 of this crap..or so I thought..Stay tuned to Day 2, which clearly was outstanding and totally made up for this day..

Back to One!

Fourth of July BollyWood style

2009-05-03T12:00:00.000-07:00

I got a booking to be on a Bollywood movie. Actually I think everyone I know practically got booked on this one. It was advertised on the Craigslist, so it was it was passed on to everyone the the e-mail list. I told Linda about it the night before and she was excited to go.

At first the casting called for All-American types for a fourth of July celebration. They specifically asked people to wear the colors "Red, white and blue". Now since this was a "fourth of July" scene, you would think that the attire would be summer clothes. Yes that's what I thought as well, until I got the e-mail on late Sunday night that they wanted people to bring heavy winter coats!

I actually almost canceled out b/c I didn't want to go through the torture of being on set in winter parkas with the temperatures to hit high 90's that day. Though Linda said that she was going regardless, and I figured if she is going to be there, it's going to be a wonderful day.

First of all, that week was a "Spring heatwave" and the temperatures soared into the 90's for 4 days in a row. Wearing a winter coat in that heat wasn't going to happen for me. Secondly, even if I wasn't a "rule breaker" I didn't have my winter coat, because guess what it's Spring now and I already put it in storage.

The call time was a super early for 5:30 am to get to Central Park West area. It's hard enough to get to any set for that early in the morning, and this was no different. I had to leave Queens by 4 am to make it there. I had no problem getting up as I was not able to sleep at all. It was so hot in the apartment, and we had no air conditioner in yet, so I spent the entire night tossing, turning and sweating.

I transferred to the "A" train at Times Square 42nd street, where I met up with two of my fellow background players. Obviously we were all heading to the same set that early in the morning. None of us have "real" jobs to go to at that time. So we waited, and waited and waited some more. Finally the train came and for all that waiting we just ended up going 2 stops to the 72nd stop at Central Park West.

We get to holding at the church and there were already over 200 background in the holding area, and in the line-up to get pay vouchers and sign in. Linda was of course already there, and saved a seat for the "A-Team!" There were SO many people and So much madness going on as there are 4 different casting agencies that booked people on it. One was this "Universal" casting in New Jersey. By the time they got through the line, there were no more vouchers left to go around for the rest of us. I was thinking' How could they not have known that they are going to need a certain number of vouchers? What a mess!"

So we had to take a seat and wait for these vouchers to be delivered. While we were waiting there and complaining, there was so much activity going on around us as they were preparing for this massive 4th of July scene. Everyone was getting into their costumes.

It was getting really colorful in that space with a wave of red, white, and blues and American flags "stars and stripes" being painted on faces. Every single patriotic costume imaginable that represented July 4th from people dressed up as Uncle Sam, Ben Franklin, George and Martha Washington to a short 4 foot 2 small Woman dressed up as the statue of Liberty! It was really coming together!

As delightful as this all was, my favorite part of the entire day had to be the marching band. They were awesome. While all this was going on inside, outside on the corner the marching band were gearing up., tuning their horns and practicing. I was so exhausted and cranky up to this point, until the entire street was captured with such delightful notes of the songs they played.

They played "Don't Stop believing" by Journey, Just a gigolo by vaious, and then one all time classic and favorite which I haven't heard of in a while which was Cannon Adderley's "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" Linda really got into it and started dancing with the band leader and trombone player distracting them while they were playing.

There is some great horn section going on with this piece. In my opinion, this is the best version of this song with the best solos that I found on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wd4RDLGOQ3I It's long, but here it is just to give you an idea of the sounds of the day. When I hear music like this, I know I didn't waste my time taking music appreciation as a minor in college.

Moving along...

The rest of the day was literally a parade! Once all the costumes and make-up were in check, the sound of the bullhorn blared and we were all summoned to follow the PA to Central Park. An we followed. All 200 of us. The band leading the way, with Uncle Sam's, and clowns, jugglers, You name it, was a parade!

When we finally got to the park, the props people were handing out red and white balloons, flags, bells and whistles, to make this the most decorative parade around. Once we got our props, we were directed up and over the hill to where they had a huge fountain area. With the blue skies, and grand music, it was a beautiful day indeed! I was the most proudest Canadian portraying an American!

The scene was fairly simple, it was a parade enjoy and have fun! If that wasn't enough when they called for lunch around 2pm, the best was yet to come. I was thinking we would just get Indian foo, which my stomach can't take or it would some boxed lunch crap. Wow I was delightfully wrong this time to be taken around the make-shift lake, around the entire park to be guided to the legendary Boathouse restuarant!

It was a luxury catered meal in the boathouse. Do you know how expensive the boathouse is?? It was so special to get to sit down and dine like human beings in this place. It was a buffet style catering, though each dish was served to us on real plates, not paper ones as we usually get. We also sat at nice tables, had cutlery, and fancy napkins to place on our laps. Who could ask for anything more?

Even though we had only 15 minutes to chow down, it didn't matter, it turned out to be a much better day than expected. Though by the time all crew and 200 people went through the line, about and hour and a half elapsed. We went back to set, though even the crew were not ready to immediately go back to work after that meal.

We finally got "Back to One" around 3pm and they would have to wrap it up in a few hours as they were dependant on the daylight. The marching band played on, and we formed a circle this time marching along with the tunes of the band who were now playing "Happy Together" by the Turtles http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxGiKgYYKvQ and even a couple of Micheal Jackson songs like "Thriller"! Talk about cheesy.

Though it was So much fun. In the end once the principal"Bollywood actors" got their lines down in a romantic setting where they shared a kiss, we were instructed to let go of all the red, white and blue balloons that we were holding. The band started playing "Sweet Caroline" by Neil Diamond http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzsUOmqpaeg as we let go of all the balloons and they all flew overhead into the clear blue skies. This was the ending song and as the band played, we sang along and the director called it a "Wrap"! Yay!

Walking back to holding to get signed out, passing by Strawberry Fields, where John Lennon's "Imagine" circle is, and still hearing the horns of the band play. Great ending to a great set.

Now I just hope we get paid in US dollars for this, not in Rupees!

LOL

Here is a link to the pictures from the day.

http://s212.photobucket.com/albums/cc165/Canada_Anne/BollyWood%20Shoot%204-27-09/?albumview=slideshow

Addendum: Life takes you in mysterious directions. Most of the time we have no idea where we are going. Most of us don't even realize that we are on our path. Most of us try to figure out and over analyze and criticize people and situations and complain of our destiny and question our faith. Most of us, not all of us. Linda, my dear friend who passed away on May 14, 2009, was an exceptional, exuberant person.

I am mentioning this here as this set was the last time I ever saw her again. To think I was going to cancel this shoot b/c I was annoyed with the wardrobe decision. When I talked to Linda on the phone, she was like "Well I am going anyways!" Nothing stopped her. She embraced life to the fullest making every minute and everyone in her life count.

It took me a while to write this addendum as I am still struggling with the fact that she truly is gone. Though her spirit lives on through her son Justin and through all the many people she touched.

This following quote is from Cannon Adderley's "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy!"

"You know sometimes we're not prepared for adversity. When it happens sometimes we're caught short. Sometimes We don't know how to handle it when it comes up. Sometimes we don't know what to do when adversity takes over..."http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRrFWp4DUho&feature=related

Forever my friend. Linda Rhodes, you will be missed. Thank-you for being a part of my life.

Back to one!

Ugly Betty Shoot at Citi Fields

2009-05-03T11:57:00.000-07:00

Finally after a ga-zillion times of submitting to get on the ABC show "Ugly Betty", I got booked. It's amazing how the powers of "bullshitting" can work wonders. This booking was for an episode of Ugly Betty that was to be shot over in the "new" Shea Stadium, Citi fields. So "C and G" casting was looking for "Mets fans" and people who have Mets shirts and jackets, etc.

I first e-mailed C and G casting and said that I am a HUGE METS fan. A little white lie, as I am a Mets fan, though not a "die-hard" fan for sure. I also do not even own one single thread of Mets clothing. Of course you e-mail them and say you have all these things just to get booked.

After not initially hearing a reply, I took the chance to call them up. Normally these casting people hate for you to call them, though I took the risk, and it paid because I did get booked on it. The call time was for 10:30 pm. This was perfect because it gave me enough time to get a Mets shirt and cap from my friend.

I went to the local pub in Astori, the Sunswick pub, had a few beers, because ballpark prices are outrageous, and I hit the "7" train at 10pm. It took only 20 minutes to get there. As soon as I got off the subway and started walking towards the stadium, throngs of people were leaving the stadium as the game let out. The Mets won! Yippee!

So I try to get through these people and make it all the way aroun the side of the stadium and followed the arrows that pointed to holding. I get in, check my ID and get signed in. I even got an official Ugly Betty "crew" tag to wear(which I never returned heheheheh)

The room or area should I say was very dark, cement floors, probably an area used normally for shipping or loading in equipment. The room was already packed and any table and seats were limited. This was one of those sets where they had "Sagre-gation" and lableled the tables as such.

Of course I went directly to the SAG table. I figure why not? I am SAG eligible now, so I may as well start acting the part. I sat down, got my pay pay voucher, filled it out and then proceeded to the feast that was waiting and calling me with the sweet aromas of SAG food! Ah how sweet it is.

There was a line of buffet style catering which included ballpark food Alla gourmet style! There were franks probably Kosher Hebrew National brand, hamburgers with slices of Mozzarella cheese melted to perfection on top, roasted corn on the cob halves and these really great sandwiches on Onion bread stuffed with provolone cheese, Genoa salami and loaded with prosciutto!Yes thank-you ABC for providing great food!

At the end of this array of food was the desert stand which had a couple of cheesecakes, cookies and these wonderfully delightful "hypnotic" cupcakes! They were a standard chocolate cupcake though it was gorgeously decorated with blue and orange swirls in a spiral pattern. They were simply too pretty to just chomp down and eat them, so we played and amused ourselves with them. My friend, Linda really made the best poses with them!

In fact Linda takes such great photos and she is a real trooper considering she is a die-hard Yankee fan having a gig at "Shitti-Fields" as she phrased it! It was So much fun as she had tattoos of the Yankees on her backside and displaying it to the Mets players.

Finally after we consumed the food and I pilfered some of those amazing onion sandwiches for later, the bull horn went off and we were all summoned to set! We went through "the tunnel" which is basically an underpass, cement-laden walk through to get to the ballpark. Before we could get to our seats, we were stopped by the props department to acquire some Mets paraphernalia.

I always try to avoid getting props, as my cohort, Linda does to, though this was unavoidable. We got stopped. I got the green light as I had on my Mets cap and t-shirt on. Though Linda got stopped and was given a plush Mets doll! At first it was like, "Oh great, now you have to hand in your voucher just to hold this thing"!

In order to make a bad situation work to our benefit, we decided to have fun with this prop, and believe me, we did. I don't think Mr. Mets knew what was coming to him and how we violated the poor plush toy. I don't think I even need to explain any further, the following pics illustrates the shoot at Citi Fields:

http://s212.photobucket.com/albums/cc165/Canada_Anne/Ugly%20Betty%20Citi%20Fields%204-24-09/?albumview=slideshow

Did we have fun. What do you think!?

Back to One..or for Mr. Mets guy.."Back for more!"

Casting for a British and Canadian accent, EH!

2009-04-25T17:52:00.000-07:00

This was the original posting for this casting call:

Sid Paterson Advertising is casting for non-union on camera talents for buyout. We are casting for “Real People” roles, both male and female, between the ages of 25 – 50, plus one child. Looking for both English speaking and bilingual Spanish and English speaking, as well as dialect talent in British, Canadian, Indian, Mexican, Argentinean and Peruvian. Also non-speaking roles. Must be welcoming and personal.

So you would think that this would be a perfect role for me. I went to this casting call over on Madison avenue. I went up to the 6th floor and signed in and then sat in the waiting area, and waited and waited some more. I went in there wearing my Canadian emblem with a maple leaf hat and Canadian "Moose" shirt. There was NO way anyone could compete with me on this one. Had this in the bag....or so I thought.

There were several different types in the waiting room. You had the model "Untouchable" types, the "way too pretty" types, the "delicate flower" types, and a couple of Indians, and Hispanics. Most of them were auditioning for the "Middle America" role.

For the role I was auditioning for doing the "British-Canadian" part, there was NO ONE else in that room for the role I went for. Being this fact, and knowing that I didn't have to compete with the "fresh young nubiles", gave me the confidence that I needed to get this role.

So finally after 3 hours, my name is called "Anne Canada". I storm into the audition room with my Canadian emblems and say "Guess where I'm from? Eh!" So I immediately went in front of the camera, slated my name and then proceeded with the audition. The line was "We'd call our daughter in the States. She just moved to New York City." I did it first in Canadian, which is my regular voice and then in British.

They loved it!! They asked me to do the line in British again an I was on a role. The director even told me that I have "Betty Davis eyes". I mean what a huge compliment. Then I was joking with the director about Canada. "How many Canadians does it take to screw in a light bulb?" Then he asks me "Is the population in Canada still 500,000?" I respond, "No actually it's only 499,00 after Celine Dion left us!"

I left the room with a great feeling and on top of it I had the entire room laughing and I knew they were interested me. Even the receptionist was asking me where I perform and all. I knew I nailed this part. I left that place happy and my head held up high!

A couple of days later I get this e-mail from them:

Hey Anne This is Dara from the Sid Paterson Casting for IDTI was wondering if it would be possible to get a recording of you saying this line with a Canadian accent and a British accent?
"We'd call our daughter in the States. She just moved to New York City."

Let me know!

Awesome I thought, this means I got the part!!!! I responded to her Yes I am available to do this role and for her to send me details. So Monday goes by, nothing. Tuesday goes by and still no word, nothing. On Wednesday I call up that office and ask to speak to her and I get put through the voice messaging system.

I leave a message and basically say that I would like to speak with her and I am a little confused to what she is asking, and if she could get back to me to clarify. Very professional and to the point. Thursday goes by and still no word. I figure I will give it until Friday before I try calling again.

I went out and did my regular job, get home to check my e-mails and LO and Behold there is an e-mail from her. I was getting excited and before I opened it I was thinking "well I guess she took so long in getting back to me because she has been busy.

Here is the e-mail she sends me:

Hey Anne!Sorry I haven’t been able to get back to you.By the time I had a moment to schedule something with you to hear more accents, the client decided on someone else and it was off to 2 days of shooting! Thank you though for getting back to me. Hope all is well!

CAN YOU F'IN BELIEVE THIS?????? I e-mail her back because I was really angry and upset. First off all for having me wait around so long and to make me believe that I had the role. On top of it HOW MANY CANADIANS WHO CAN DO A BRITISH ACCENT IN NEW YORK ARE THERE?????

I mean this is such a HUGE slap in the face. I really don't think I will get over this one. I mean if I can't even get a role as a Canadian, being an authentic Canadian..then what in the world is the "right role" for me??? Unbelievable. I am SO upset over this right now I can't even breathe. I give up. This has really done it.

Sigh :(

Accuvein commercial Audition

2009-04-25T17:30:00.000-07:00

I went to this audition for this new pharmaceutical device named “Accuvein”. Yes as you can determine in the name, the device checks for “good veins” to tap into in order to draw blood from.

Like any other audition, you go there and don’t expect much of anything. Just go in and give it all you got. So I went to a casting agency over in the Flatiron district. There were already 100 people signed up on the list.

In the room there were heavy set people, thin people, and most of all babies. Big babies, small babies, chubby babies, ugly babies, cute babies. All these babies were in carriages and strollers wailing away as their Mothers were trying to shut them up and comfort them for their audition.

When I got to the audition I was check in #102 and I thought I would have to wait forever. To my surprise it went very quickly..only 2 hours of waiting!

You watch every person; baby and Mother go into the room and see their reaction when they come out. Most of the babies went in crying and within seconds were out the door wailing stronger than ever.

Finally after sitting there for 4 hours through all this madness going on the guy calls out check in #102. I looked at my card..”Hey that’s me!” At first when I entered the room I was nervous as with any audition, though by the time I was called, I really just wanted to get this audition done and over with.

I thought it to be strange that after all that time in the waiting room, there were NO sides or lines handed out to study before going into this audition.. So I figure, great it’s going to be one of these “improv auditions”.

I get into the room; the guy takes my information and tells me to take a seat. There is one camera set up and a blue screen backdrop. I slate my name to the camera and I am expecting to get a scenario by the director to work off of and just improv this product to try and sell it.

Instead, the director says: “Roll up your sleeves as far as you can and Put out your arms so we can see your veins”. I was like what??? So I did as directed, rolled up my sleeves as far as they would go and thrust my arms out towards the camera to display the best veins I have.

The Woman in the room then comes by with a red light device and streams it up and down my arms to “highlight” the best veins. Then the hard part came, I was asked to show the back of my arms. Same thing again this time with the red light up and down the arms to the hands. After 5 seconds that was it! Thank-you and get out! Next!

So much for getting that part. I didn’t have the right veins! Can you believe this? I would have had better luck being a heroin addict to have the best veins to tap into. Maybe I need some good "heroin veins" to tap into!

Maybe this product is being marketed to druggies! Who knows? What I do know is that I faltered at another audition, wasted an entire day to do this and don’t get the part b/c my veins are not good enough.

Go figure.
CA.

The Baster - New Jennifer Aniston comedy!

2009-04-11T20:38:00.000-07:00

(from April 10,2009)

Thinking that I would have no work this past week as it was Passover and Easter, I really didn't expect to get any work. Lo and behold, things always happen when you don't expect it. Sure enough this was true this past week as I was booked on the new Jennifer Aniston move "The Baster" co-starring Jason Bateman.

The movie “The Baster" is a comedy with co-star Jason Bateman. Which is about you guessed it...one thousand ways to use a turkey baster! You can either baste a turkey or "baste" yourself!Thus a new movie synopsis is born!

It’s basically about an unmarried 40-year-old woman turns to a turkey baster in order to become pregnant. Seven years later, she reunites with her best friend, who has been living with a secret: he (Jason Bateman) replaced her preferred sperm sample with his own!

Shocking! As if this concept has never been done before on a Soap Opera. Still I have to admit, it's a cute premise with comedy potential. On to the night....

The night consisted of mostly line, lines, and more lines. The night started in a line to get checked in and to get the pay voucher. Then you have to get into another line to get checked by wardrobe. Then you wait…and you wait and wait some more in a holding are until a some PA comes in the room with a bullhorn and tells you have 5 minutes to get ready for lunch!

Mind you before we got summoned to Lunch, we totally rationed and hunted out for any drivel of crumbs, food, and chips we could find. I was not going to let myself starve on this movie as we did on the Angelina Movie, "SALT", with a walk-a-way lunch!

So instantly when we saw the food table stationed down the block of the Roosevelt hotel, we started "pilfering" as much food as we could. With the past experience and knowledge of working on a big budget film and getting NO food, any sight of food meant.. "Take NOW! ...Pilfer. PILFer.. PILFER!" Oy Vey. All of a sudden I am feeling mighty Jewish! LOL.

Being the fact the it was Easter /Passover week, I think we made the Lord proud of the food we did manage to take and distribute amongst our brethren background brothers.

Of course we started stuffing our faced with rolls, meats, cheeses, Oreo cookie packs and then we find out that JEN..OH Glorious Jen was to feed us non-union folk as good if not as well as the Sag-folk. Just to get fed was a huge "Hallelujah" and rejoice across the non-sag tables. If felt like the part in the "The Commandments' where Moses takes his staff and parts the sea apart so all the (non-union) slaves can get through to where there will be food and new dwellings.

The best line of all! That is of course if there is a good buffet lunch provided for both the Sag and non-Sag players. Luckily on this movie, we did have a decent catering service provide for all 300 extras! The food was really good and some of us were just SO happy in glee and thanked JEN, our "Moses" for the night! Thank-you Jen!

The worst line has got to be the “Sign-out” at the end of the night line. This line can be brutal as people get demanding and bitchy and an entire state of panic and anger ensues. What’s amazing about this line is that after being on a set for over 14 hours and it ‘s 6am in the morning and the director still wants all the extras to act fresh and active, people are ready to drop.

Though as soon “It’s a wrap” is called, a big mad mass of people regain their energy and will race, run, scream, push, trip and fight to get into that line to get checked out! It’s a swarm of insanity and tired reckless people with the same objective “GET IN THE LINE; SIGN OUT TO GET HOME AND CRASH!”

This is what happened on a set of this nature where you have at least 300 background extras. Why I am still doing this is simply because I need the money. Though I have to admit that the madness of it intrigues me. It’s like once you get through the lines, you have accomplished something great! Strange, but true.

Just like on the Jennifer Aniston movie, we were trapped in Grand Central subway shuttle train where they shot the scene. Clearly I was not in the scene. And not visible, though when I asked if I could leave the set to use the bathroom, it was a big NO!

So it was being trapped there all night ling until they wrapped. It was 14 hours of this craziness. Walking in and out of the subway train doors, over and over again, a thousand times.

Will I do it again. Of course. My favorite part is how people complain how horrible it is, yet they ALL come back…."Back to one!"

CA ;)

SALT - Angelina Jolie Feature Film 3-21-09

2009-03-24T13:34:00.000-07:00

(from 3-21-09)

Made it to the second and final Saturday for the taping of "SALT", the Angelina Jolie feature film where she portrays a double agent.

Tom Cruise was originally picked to do the role, though it was given to Jolie, because Cruise was too "short" and a "Closet gay".

The good thing about it being our second time on this set for this scene, was that we knew what we needed to wear and where we would be situated. Also the holding area was going to be the Marriot again.

Our call-in time to check the voice messaging system with the details was for 8pm. Now you would think that the message would be shorter than last week, as the majority of us were going to be there. Save for the young Lady who got rolled away in the ambulance. Somehow I don't think she had been invited back.

Still the message should have been maximum of 5 minutes long, instead it was a grueling 15 minutes. Being the fact that the message was released before 9pm, meant wasting cell phone minutes. Almost as long as last weeks message, I managed to knit a sweater, run the marathon, flew to the moon and back, got a root canal, and roasted a turkey before the punchline, of WHAT TIME TO REPORT WAS!!!! WOW, that really wiped me out.

Onwards.. March my fellow background artists to the call of early call time MADNESS! Actually 6am was far better than 5:30 a.m. from last week. Still it was a mess and people were wrapped around the stairs, again from the night before, just to get checked in.

Eventually as the line petered down, we somewhat resumed the same general location of the seats which we were sitting in the previous Saturday. Just as we were getting acclimated and finishing up breakfast, the PA came into the blew her trumpets signifying it was time to gather everyone up and head to set! Trumpets blaring:"EVERYONE OUT OF THIS ROOM!!...NOW!!

Quickly we went back to our spots that we were in the previous Saturday. Mine of course was the bathroom lounge at the Waldorf Astoria. Truly gives the "Bathroom experience" new meaning. Just made you feel a little more "Special" than using regular bathrooms.

On to the scene:

We went outside to our original positions by the doors of the Waldorf to soon be directed and follow the swarm of people to the other side of the street, opposite of St. Bartholomew's church. They had all the background on that side to fill in as many bodies as they could to make it about 5 deep. From the sidewalks all the way back to the buildings on that block.

So we are So sandwiched in and there is no way out. I was kind of pissed because I wanted to get in the front row and thought I was in a bad position. Later as the scene progressed, my fellow background Friends and I soon found out that we were actually standing on "prime real estate" of the stars.The scene had has huddling as close as we could on this block. Though with over 700 background a New York block on Park Avenue becomes a small piece of land.

In fact we were SO sandwiched in at this point. It felt like being in Times Square subway platform with the capacity of reaching it's limit and if you were to "stuff" more people on that platform you would surely fall off the edge and into the tracks and be slaughtered by the third rail in seconds.

Well at least we were amongst friends here. Secretly, I was hoping that a cute guy would rub against me ;)

Thought that didn't happen. What did happen was that I got "Touched by an ANGEL-ina!" That's right. In the scene we are ALL standing there and pretending to be watching this funeral procession. Suddenly this Woman with Raven Black hair, scurries in front of us. I was like "How rude is that?"

Before I had a chance to really get angry, I saw that it was an ANGEL-ina that touched me. Yes that's right I got touched by her. My other friend got stepped on by her. Most of us got "Brushed" by her when she went past us.

I managed to get a picture of my friend Laurie demonstrating where she got "brushed" by Angelina on her coat sleeve. "Never to be washed again!" , she declared. Because being "touched by Angelina means we have been touched by Brad!" Oh my!

At that point the rest of the day, and the fact that it was chilly on Park Avenue and got we NO food, and it was a walk-away lunch did not matter. We were touched, stepped on, and brushed by a million dollars.. WOW , it felt good.

Feel even better if it(million dollars) were in my pocket...

Sigh :(

Back to One !

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Rescue ME - "Lesbian Fighting scene" Day Two

2009-03-22T15:55:00.000-07:00

(from 3-18-09)

I woke up literally at 7:10am with a call time of 7:30 am! Luckily I didn't have the "beast" of all hangovers from St. Patricks day celebrations the night before. I actually surprised because I had my fill of "Green beer". Perhaps it was all the Cornish beef and cabbage that I consumed which must have soaked up most of the alcohol.

I scraped myself out of bed, crawled to the bathroom, splashed some water on my face, put some deodorant on and mad my way out the door to the holding area which was in Sunnyside Queens. If the sign-in was where the set was, I would have been right on time.

It's amazing how fast you can get yourself moving, especially when it involves a paycheck. Also being the fact that I was SO angry and voiced my grievance publicly, getting there late would NOT be cool. So I strolled into the holding area, and nonchalantly checked and signed in.

Like I said I felt a little "dizzy" and looked like I just crawled out of a grave with my unkempt hair and dark circles under my eyes. Please, if anyone has pictures of that horror, please delete!

So I am thinking to myself "after I sign in, all I have to do is get on that bus, and crash!" Justifying my night of debauchery.."This is owed to me, I have paid my dues, Dammit!" Thinking that I was going to have a nice deep siesta, of course didn't happen.

What ruined it for me was "Stupid/pretty People" on the bus. One in particular, you know the type.."Gossip Girl", just got out of her Mother's womb, yet she already has nine waivers, and claims she was featured on an Ashton Kuthcer film. She is skinny, great skin, dresses sexy in a cute way and ALL the guys fear her.

I am really trying to ignore this "fresh young nubile" though there is nothing else going on and you are tuning in because you are amazed and wondering how "Stupid/pretty people" even exist?? The answer is all they do is smile, wink and the world is their oyster.

Thankfully Lunch was soon on the agenda, because I was really no into the "Dumbing down of America" anymore, and which she clearly represented. Lord help us!! The next generation is in DEEP trouble! With the help of a really great spread of food, my focus and anger quickly was geared on my Tupperware and packing food to take home for my roommate and me.

So I managed to get some good food packed up and many people follow suit. You figure you may as well. At the end of the day, this food is thrown out. In a way we are doing them a favor. We were called to get back on the bus, and back to the set location.

I really thought I would be able to go back home and drop off the food again and put it in my fridge, but to my shock, we were actually ALL called to come and be part of the scene. I have to say, I was really excited to be a part of the scene that was coming up.

The scene involved many stunt background for this huge fighting scene on the side of the boxing ring. This was So big that we actually got a speech from the stunts coordinator guy to tell us to "be careful" as there would be a lot of activity going on. He goes on telling us "these are 'stunt professionals' so don't be in the way of their work as you won't be getting an upgrade for hurting yourself!"

Very well put. The scene itself was really exciting to watch. This was on the side of where the boxing match was going on. This scene the two rival groups ready to rumble. One group was representing the "Butch Lesbians, and the other side were the gangsta guys.

I had my own group called the Canadian/Asian Persuasion:

In the scene,gun fires sound, and a high scale fight ensues. Punching, kicking, slamming bodies into the cab cars. Thumping, crashing, and over all chaos. It was cool. The choreography kind of reminded me of "West Side Story" where the "Sharks" and the "Jets" set the stage for that historic fight scene.

Our role in this was to be the on-lookers as we very carefully wedged ourselves in between the cab cars not to get to close to the stunt people. It was So real though, and very exciting. After a few takes, we went "Back to one" on the boxing ring side where the Lesbian boxer is using the male boxer as a punching bag!

They go around the entire ring exchanging blows to one another as were are surrounding them as background shadows. As they are going around the ring, they get to the corner of the ring and both of them stop their jabs and look to their side where this "rumble" is taken place.

This is how it all ties in together. You don't know how they got into the boxing ring together, but you get the impression that the female boxer was the leader of her "Butch" group and the male boxer was leader of the other group. You assume they are in the ring to end the battle between the two groups, and this was the purpose of the boxing match. They end thier fighting as the bigger rumble starts as a result.

The rest I guess you will have to tune into the FX channel to watch "Rescue Me". Well worth it!

Back to one.

A.

Rescue ME- "Lesbian Fighting scene" Day One

2009-03-22T07:31:00.000-07:00

(from 3-17-09)
I was booked on the set of "Rescue Me" by Barbara McNamara casting for a 2-day shoot. The original casting was for "Butch" types. When I submitted to this I sent a picture of myself that I had of myself when I did a gig for biker commercial last year, where I was wearing a leather vest and a slutty, revealing top.

Really not my style, though of course I am not going to refuse a gig that pays. Also being that fact that this was "Rescue Me", and a Dennis Leary production, I knew that the food was going to be amazing!

I got the information and call times and was delighted to find out that this was going to be in Long Island City area, in Queens, which means walking distance for me! Finally something close by for me to get too. However the holding area was actually in Sunnyside Queens;the set was in L.I.C.

Actually I should rephrase that, the holding area where we were to brunch and lunch in was located over by the reform church in Sunnsyside. Our "holding" area for the entire rest of the day was on a bus.

We were stationed in Long Island City right off of Northern Blvd and 49th streets by Newtown road. I live on 49th st between 30 and 31st avenues, which was three blocks away from where the set was.

The actual set was indoors in this once functional mechanics garage. It was dirty, dusty, musty, oily and greasy with garbage on the sides, a couple of broken down old taxis, some on a lift, some just on the side. In the middle of the space, which was to be the centerpiece of the show, was of course the boxing ring.

The story line was how this "Lesbian Boxer" gets into the rink with a male boxer. We don't exactly know what occurred before this, though you get the impression that the male boxer was challenged by the female boxer to engage in this fight.

This premise made for an exciting day and this is one of the few times that I was actually eager to get on set. AS soon as we got off the bus, we wanted to be part of the action and got the "good folding chair VIP seats" in the center stage to view the fight.

So we sat their watched about ten minutes of the Lesbian fighting the male boxer and getting some good jabs in, as we the"Butch gals" cheered on for her. That was it! We were told to go back to the bus! At the time I was thinking that they would call us back shortly, so we should hang closely by.

Well would you believe that we ended up sitting on that bus for longer than anticipated. You can imagine how I felt considering ALL this time went by and I was staring down the road with the fact that I could be home in ten minutes! Yet I kept thinking to myself, as you always do, "Well What if they need us for the scene?" Yes.."What If" six hours later. Figures my luck the minute I cross the road, we will be called back, though that NEVER happened.

To make matters even worse, while we were sitting in the back of the bus and engaging in some decent conversation, and relaxing, a foul smell suddenly was being released from the bathroom of the bus. Yes that's right, someone did a number "2"!! Can you believe that??

First of all that is rude, and I personally would be mortified of embarrassment to even consider to do a "Number 2" on a confined space like a bus. So the person opens the door and starts laughing, to my surprise it was a female that produced this odor.

The smell was SO bad that we quickly evacuated off the bus. Luckily it was a really nice spring like day and we could hang outside. After several hours, and many bottles of febreeze, we went back into the bus, to get even more disturbing news.

We get a call from Barbra McNamara's casting office to tell us that since we were in the first scene for the "establishing shot" that they will not be needing us back tomorrow. I was like "HOLD EVERYTHING," getting angry, "YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING!"

I tried to be as diplomatic and calm as I possibly could, though I was really pissed. I mean I booked this and confirmed two weeks ago, and let go a day to work on "SALT" for this, to be told that because I DID my job, I am going to be punished for it. UN-believable!!!

After I vented severely, Lunch was called. The buses drove us back to the reform church where an amazing spread of food awaited us. I was still beyond angry, but I thought at least they have great food and I can stock up and bring some food home in the Tupperware I brought.

At least the food did not let us down, There was an array of salads, which included hot peppers with olives and wax bean salad which I really like. Then the main course has buffet servings of roasted potatoes, rice, Salmon, and beef sliced fresh from the slab of beef by the chef himself. The deserts were okay and they had banana cake and some cherry rhubarb pie.

I admit that the lunch made me feel better, but still I was not happy. For one thing I can't afford to lose a day of money. So we get back on the bus and my phone rings. It's Barbra McNamara casting's office. I was like "oh great, maybe it's Barbra herself calling because I was a little to rough on her employee. Answering the phone, I was preparing a "I'm sorry speech". To my surprise, it was the other employee calling me and basically told me that "Some of us were back on", and very secretly "Don't advertise this to anyone!"

I hung up the phone and did not say a word. We got back to the set location and the bus parked. With the "new" knowledge that we were not going to be used for the rest of the day, I quickly got my food in the Tupperware, and headed home, 3 blocks away, to put the food in the fridge.

I dropped the food off and headed back as I didn't want to get reprimanded. I got back and nothing changed. I could have gone shopping, seen a movie, knitted a sweater, in the time that we sat on the bus.

I was getting really "antsy" especially around 5pm when I was getting texts from my friend who was already at the local bar celebrating St. Patricks day. Then I thought to myself "Well Dennis Leary is Irish, he can't let us down on this day of all days!"

About an hour later, out P.A. came on the bus and said "All Non-Aftra is wrapped!" Alright Dennis! You Rock!!! I guess it was the "luck O' the Irish after all. I got signed out on the bus and immediately headed to the pub to join my friend.

All in a good days work.

Tomorrow, "Back to One".

A.

SALT- Angelina Jolie Feature Film ( 3-16-09)

2009-03-19T20:20:00.000-07:00

Just when I thought I didn't get enough of "SALT" on Saturday, I got booked for Monday as well. The thing is that Central Casting was SO adamant in their posting that IF you worked on SALT at ALL on Saturday, YOU CAN NOT WORK IT DURING THE WEEK!!!! Well I guess things change, or they have NO idea what they are doing.

So I took the booking and had to cancel something else last minute just to do this. The call time wasn't bad which was announced on the voice messaging center as 7:15 am for my group. The other difference was that this time we were indoors and the entire day was taking place inside of the St. Bartholomew's church on 51st and Park.

Being inside plus you get to sit down, sounds like a treat; but not so much. We had to enter that church quietly and maintain the "Church mice" feel without a peep or we would be thrown out! So we got our positions and sat down in the pews.

The first 5 rows were filled with the dignitaries, military, and of course SAG people. The rest of us, Non-Saggers filled up the edge of the rows at the end or beginning of the rows, and the rest of the pews were filled sitting beside dummies! These Dummies got better treatment than we did!

I'm not even kidding! While I was sitting there, one of the hair and makeup people come by and walk by my row, and looks down the row examining. Then she leans over and I thought she was going to fix my "frizzy" hair. Instead she totally ignores me like I'm not even there and she fixes the Dummies hair and also give it a puff! I'm like "Wow, these must be SAG- dummies!

This dummy that I was sitting beside, was really life-like. Maybe I was hallucinating from lack of sleep, but I could swear that dummy touched me! Those dummies were creepy beyond belief. It was very "Twilight Zone". My friend Laurie was so tired that she even started making out with one of the dummies!

So while I am sitting there bored out of my mind, for hours on end you start talking to the dummy and I spent the rest of my time reading "Portnoy's Complaint" by Philip Roth. In fact I could have read "War and Peace" and finished that novel from front to cover with how many hours we were trapped in there.

After hours of our butts aching from sitting in those church pews for hours, they advanced to the next scene which involved a choir. Let me tell you, this was the absolute best part of the entire day. The actual instruments were on playback, but the vocals were all live, and it was magical.

The song that this choir sang filled up every inch and crevice in that church and every sound was immaculate and Angelic. It made you feel sad, yet at peace. It was probably a version of some Requiem or "Mass of the dead". All sung in Latin, of course, gave you shivers up and down your spine.

It's amazing music can uplift a person. People who were nodding off and falling asleep, people who were counting the minutes to when we would wrap. Even that Woman that was making out with the dummy, halted.

All of a sudden were captured by the sweet "Arias" and dimension of sound that drew us in and woke up our senses. Everyone was touched by this. Some were so encapsulated by this and overwhelmed, that their eyes were welling up with tears and they had to leave the room. AH..the power of music.

Of course once the music ended, the background assumed their rightful positions which was of sleeping....Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....

Back to one!

A.

SALT Angelina Jolie Feature Film

2009-03-14T17:16:00.000-07:00

After two months of not getting ANY background work, finally the long awaited "Cattle Call" for background had arrived! This was for the booking on the feature film "SALT" starring Angelina Jolie! NO, Brad is not in this one, Sorry Girls!

I submitted to be cast on this movie numerous times on Casting Networks, never to get a reply. The only reason I even got this was because while we were on the "Hirosaki Theater Players", our friend Mike got the call from Central Casting, and we overheard him on the phone getting booked for this. So luckily we got in on the action and before you know it Mikes Iphone was passed along to seven of us sitting there in the theater and talked to Jamie at Central which got us all booked right there on the spot.

So of course you are thrilled to get a booking; any booking. Though when I got my "check-in #421", I knew this was a huge casting call and they were booking everyone and anyone that can breathe! Being the fact this was for a Saturday, it didn't interfere with regular work week, so I didn't think it would be that bad of a day.

The week went by and throughout I kept getting text messages and phone calls of so many people that I haven't heard from in ages that they were booked on this movie as well. I was actually looking forward to this, as it was not only a job, it was going to be more like a reunion for my friends in the background world which I have not seen for ages.

The much anticipated call times and location was to be released Friday afternoon by 3pm. Well that soon changed to 10pm at night with a 20 minute message telling us basically to wear black and be somber as it was going to be this mass funeral scene.

A month later when she finally got to the call times, you felt like replaying the entire message because you couldn't believe your ears when you heard that the call times were for 5:30am!!! Oh the Horror!

Yes this is correct..Repeat NOT an error....You waited ALL day long to get the call times and location just to be inundated by this massive description to what to wear for a funeral scene, just to be side swiped and left in shock and dismay. This meant that after you hung up the phone, and used up all your minutes just to hear this message, you had to quickly grab some black clothes, shower, shave, and try to get at least 2 hours sleep and make it on time! Unbelievable!

The holding area was over at the Marriott on Lexington between 48 and 49th streets. For myself this was a decent location to commute to, though being the fact it was a Saturday, the trains are at "turtle" speed and the "E-vil" train is swarming and reeking of the homeless parking their make-shift "bedroom in the corner of the train. The only good thing about that is there are plenty of seats to choose from if you don't mind not breathing.

I arrived to the lobby of the Marriott and immediately recognized over 20 people who I have not seen for ever! We quickly acknowledged each others presence and then were directed our designated floors. All reporters had the room on the bottom floor which seated about 200 and the rest of us Spectators/mourners went up to the second floor room which had the seating capacity of over a thousand.

The first part of the day consisted of lines. The first one of course was a huge line wrapping around the stairs to get checked in and to get our voucher. The second line up was of course to get food. The third was to get our wardrobe checked.

Now I really love this part, especially when this is for a funeral scene, exteriors, which means we will be wearing our coats. Yet, you have to go through this unnecessary line to get more "black" clothes, because your clothes were not "black" enough. This really made sense as we were to be stationed outdoors for the entire day wearing our coats where our clothes underneath would not even been seen at all.

I also love the fact that they were giving people costume jewelry to wear and had to hand in their vouchers for it. What a complete waste of time. For one thing, no one is going to see you and secondly to have to go through another line-up at the end of the day to return a pair of earrings is absurd. But you see wardrobe has to make it look like they are doing their job, so they will give these items out and call it a day meanwhile you are stuck with this piece of crap all day long and responsible for it.

...On to the scene of the day....

This was a huge production of a funeral scene. I mean this was massive. It was the type of production of a funeral that would be fit for a KING or some other royalty. Not a president, though. Presidents, especially when Bush jr. finally kicks the bucket will get an unceremonious ceremony involving a sack and some dirt for messing up this country so badly.

The entire stream of the funeral had a somber yet respectful approach to it. The funeral procession stretched from the front doors of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel,

to the doors of St. Bartholomew's. The procession itself was lavishly decorated with a band of marching bagpipe players, sailors, military, followed by police motor cycles, Police cars, and of course the hearse and the immediate family members following in limos behind the parade.

We were the spectators along the sidewalks of the streets and somberly looking on. This was to be the longest funeral procession of all time. For those of you who were around to see Princess Lady Diana's funeral know how many hours that procession lasted. I think this one beat the record. Every time the director shouted "Action", within seconds, "CUT"- "Back to one!" was yelled out. For us spectators it was easy to reset, though not so much with the marching band and the police cars, and the hearse, and limos ALL had to reverse back to their "ones".

Sounds easy, but not so much as a couple of times, the drivers nearly slammed into each other a couple of times while reversing too much. As for us "general" background, standing there for several hours became challenging in terms of the pin in our feet and the weather forecast which where we were standing, got directly into the winds which made it feel a lot colder than the actual temperature for the day.

The only good thing about where I was positioned was that we were right by the front entrance of the Waldorf, where we went inside to seek refuge every time they said "CUT"! In fact we had our little room on the side, where the concierge actually put out chairs for us ladies to sit down on. That was really nice of the guy to do.

On the other side of the street a group of people crammed into a "Capital One bank" vestibule to seek refuge from the frosty air.Still those little spurts of running into the building everytime saved us somewhat, but not when they were rolling for longer takes.

Here is a brief synopsis about the film:

Angelina Jolie takes on her role a raven-haired femme fatale Evelyn A. Salt as she films her upcoming spy flick with costar Liev Schreiber in New York City on Saturday (March 14).

Salt is a CIA officer who is fingered as a Russian sleeper spy. Liev plays Salt’s boss and friend on the Russian desk at the CIA. The film was originally developed with Tom Cruise in the lead role, centering on Edwin A. Salt.

Now you would think that with such big star names, would mean a BIG budget. Well yes it's a BIG budget an paycheck for the SAG players and the principal actors, though for NON-SAG, not so much.
The worst part of the day was standing outside for 9 hours and not getting any food or water save for a basket of Rugalach cookies and a box of Poland Spring for a thousand extras.

I grabbed a couple of waters and though, well "they are going to have some kind of lunch soon, so I can hold out until then!" Well I was right about one thing, we did get lunch. However, it was a WALK-AWAY lunch! Unbelievable. You tell me that with such a big name production, you couldn't give us at least a measly boxed lunch. You have got to be kidding! How cheap is that??

Here is a big name player, Angelina Jolie who is know for adopting and feeding starving children around the world, and yet us starving and sleep deprived extras get NOTHING!!! As Linda Rhodes, fellow background star put it ".."hey Ang- tell your African daughter there are starving people on Park Avenue!" This is actually Columbia Pictures fault for sure. It seems to me that the "bigger" the STAR power, the smaller the treatment is to the background extras.

I do realize that they don't have to give us any meal. I have been on bigger productions such as "I am Legend" starring Will Smith and the background count was 1500 people. Still we had a "army tent serving of slop as food which was horrible, though we at least got that much. In this case they should have mentioned this in the 25minute long message, than perhaps we would have come better prepared and not to deal with the chaos that later ensued.

After our "Walk-away lunch", we got back to our original "ones". OK great just another 5 hours to go!! Our wrap time was based on the fact that the sun goes down now at around 6:30pm. So it was the same thing that we were doing in the morning. This time however the vehicles moved inched closer to the church. Though every time they shouted out "CUT" they had to reverse even further back.

The difference between the morning and now was that there were so many more regular people and tourists by the Waldorf who wanted to see if they could get a glimpse of Angelina. This of course made it more difficult for the Pa's to try and stop traffic going by into the scene. On top of all the you had the paparazzi waiting to get the perfect shot.

Here is everyone trying to get as close as they can to this superstar, and who happens to be right beside her is "Crazy AL", the BEAST of BACKGROUND. This guy is such a menace. He is a loud mouth, looks like an oversized walrus, and is an absolute obnoxious miscreant. Yet he gets into the scene. Shoot me now! Who did he threaten to even get booked on this??? Moving on... Sigh ;(

I guess with all this going on, and the throngs of people getting thicker, some people get sick, just can't take anymore and shut down. In the midst of all this about 10 people away from me, and incident occurred where a young Lady had a mild seizure and physically dropped down, almost to the ground.

Luckily a friend of mine was there to catch her fall. Within seconds, the PA was called to hold people back and an ambulance came on set. Within seconds, they got her on the stretcher and rolled her into the ambulance. My friend Linda and I looked at each other and thought "Well that's one less non-union to sign out!

I thought "This is a good time to wrap!" Not so much. Within seconds, they continued the scene as if nothing had happened. About an hour after that, they yelled out our favorite words "It's a wrap!" Yippee!! All the pain and fatigue vanished as we ALL super-charged and scurried like mad dogs to get back to holding to sign out so we could go home.

What a long day it was..Back to One, next Saturday!

Hirosaki Theater Players

2009-03-10T18:20:00.000-07:00

Got booked on the "Hirosaki Theater Players". I got this booking through Amy Gossels casting which proves even casting agencies that normally specialize in Principal roles are hurting in this crestfallen economy. The pay rate was something that is not appealing to announce, though I am doing it for comparison sake. Our rate was $35 dollars USD, not Japanese Yen.

Too bad it wasn't in Euros, it would be worth a lot more. Doing the judge shows back in the days, we would get $50.00, Dunkin Donuts coffee for breakfast, and pizza for lunch. Plus great entertainment factor especially how more twisted and "Ghetto" the plaintiffs/defendants were.

Though for the "love of art", or more like "love of money in my wallet", you make sacrifices and surrender your pride for culture and some "yen" to get through the next day.

Our location was at the Harry De Jur Playhouse at the Abrons Arts Center 466 Grand Street @ Pitt Street. The closest subway stop is the F train (Essex/Delancey stop). Getting to the location was a huge trek from the Essex/Delancey St. considering I was coming from Astoria Queens. Not a bad location if you live in the Lower East side.

After about an hour and a half commute, I got to the lobby of the building and was told to sit down where there were only two chairs. Actually I was "gestured" to sit down as they all spoke Japanese and the only guy who knew any English , or "broken English" , had a thick Russian accent and we needed an interpreter just to understand him.

I was the only one there at the time, or so I thought. I saw the craft table which had two urns, one with coffee, the other tea. On the table beside they had three paper plates. One had crappy butter popcorn, the other were filled with pretzels and restaurant tortilla chips, plain and without the dip. I was thinking "great, they did say there would be a meal, I guess this constitutes as a meal for a rat!"

When I was directed to the actual holding area, there were already a few friendly faces sitting at tables:

There was a spread of spaghetti and meatball dishes on the side that smelled real good, though we were not aloud to touch it until it got cold and all the crew members had their fill.

Of course we were directed to sit in the theater and drag all our stuff with us where they were to perform so the crew and cast could eat without our presence. Later on as the day into evening progressed, they did give us some "Asian sandwiches" with Surprise meat. By the time the sandwiches came, I was SO hungry and didn't care if it was made with "Dog" meat. I didn't care if it was an Asian , I was so hungry at that point. LOL. It was pretty good considering their budget. We spent most of our time indoors

The play itself is some kind of a Japanese theme play with lots of monologues. It wasn't that bad, long though. I think it’s about a troupe of Japanese actors who come to this country. What I found out later was that the director’s father is in the troupe, or something like of that nature. I didn’t get the whole story but that’s what I heard.

We finally got to see the act and it was interesting, especially if you knew Japanese, as there were no subtitles. The stage was very simple set with a wooden cabinet with wooden bowls where a beautiful Japanese Woman dressed in a fancy white dress, could have been her wedding dress, was fixing the dishes. On the side there was a Japanese school girl what appeared to be making or cleaning a bowl.

A Japanese nurse stood by the entrance/doorway to what was believed to be the home of these people.

The two main characters, another beautiful Japanese Woman though more despondent and serious in demeanour, gave a monologue. You did not have to be Japanese to understand that she was in despair and you got the impression that she was woman with purpose and fought to keep her family together through the war or something like that.

Cut to...the old man doing the monologue. As she finished, he continues with another monologue of hope for mankind. We really did not get it at this point. Though the old man did remind us of the actor Pat Morito playing Mr. Miyaggi as the mentor to the actor Ralph Macchio in the movie "The Karate Kid", as the character, Daniel Larusso. "Wax on; Wax off".

Then we were hearing the soundtrack to Karate Kid, "The Glory of Love" by Peter Cetera in our heads. Thankfully after the initial rehearsal, they did only a couple of takes.

After that we were sent back to the holding area to literally hold ourselves up from boredom. There was word that there was a "second location" which we were not informed of, and did sit well with some people because it was NOT indicated in the e-mail that we would all be in another location.

This meant that if you lived in the LES area, you got a raw deal. The second location was in Chelsea over by 23rd and 8th ave. The word was "they" would not go back to the first location.

In the "second" location is where the only exterior was shot and that was 20 minutes of being outside and over 4 hours of waiting inside for something to happen.

This was the exterior scene depicting us coming in to the theater and barely getting in to the sold-out "Hirosaki players theater" show.

I got home around 2 am taking the "E" train back to Queens, which really reeks at that time with the designated homeless marking their territory for the night.

All in all, it was a fun night. Probably would have been better if we were paid more, though still better than sitting at home watching the time go by.

Tell you though, after working for peanuts, a nice shot of "Hiro-SAKE" would have been a nice night-cap.

Sigh :(
A.

The LAST AIRBENDER OPEN CALL for ASIANS only!

2009-03-06T16:29:00.000-08:00

The entire Month of February has been a complete write-off in terms of background work. Actually...it's been a VERY bad month for getting other job/income as well. What a huge struggle. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

So when you see Craig's List postings such as:

**BE IN A MOVIE!!** a MAJOR MOTION PICTURE filming in Philadelphia “THE LAST AIRBENDER” Based on the hugely successful Nickelodeon animated TV series, “Avatar”, the PARAMOUNT PICTURES & NICKELODEON MOVIES live-action feature film, THE LAST AIRBENDER, directed, written, and produced by M. Night Shyamalan, is set in a world where human civilization is divided into four nations: Air, Water, Earth, and Fire. NOW CASTING… MARTIAL ARTISTS, CRAFTSMAN, ARTISTS, DANCERS, GYMNASTS, FAMILIES, & GRANDPARENTS**

The part that I omitted from the original posting is this :Searching for… ASIAN-AMERICANS MEN & WOMEN, BOYS & GIRLS AGES 5-85

...yes not CAUC-Asian..JUST ASIANS!!!!

Though being the determined and resourceful person that I am, I went anyways. Actually it was my friend Steve who is now SAG, that mentioned this to me. So I figured, "I got nothing better to do on a Sunday, why not!"

I headed out to Roosevelt avenue subway stop and I picked up the "7" train. It was a nice and pleasant trip. I got a seat on the train and it was not jam-packed with ASIANS, as it is on the weekday. I got to Main Street in Flushing and I was in absolute shock. This area is literally Canal Street times a thousand!!!

WOW! I have never seen SO many Asians and Asian stores than on Main Street. I think they may have more Chinese than in China! Well okay maybe not, but close!

Part of the intrigue to going to this casting call was this posting on the Internet of a protest being held there: last airbender casting call protest in flushing.

The protest was because this "Avatar"/animated series consists of ONLY Asian characters. There is not one single white person in the series. However, when Hollywood produces a movie, they are the big money shakers and in order to sell tickets, have to make it as marketable as possible.

So in this case, they, "Hollywood People with 'deep pockets' to produce such a big budget film", decided to cast a female and male lead that are of "Caucasian persuasion", not ASIAN... NOT going to make the ASIANS happy , considering the original animation was cast as all Asians and gave the Asians a brand name. Now this "brand name" is being tainted all for the 'almighty buck', so to speak. Mess with the Asian product, you mess with the Asians.

Mind you it turned out to be a very mild protest with a turnout of only two brave souls and die hard fans of the avatar to stand out there in the cold and hand out fliers. Still these two young individuals stood their ground and maintained their space and proved they had a purpose. This was of course until they got booted off the premises and had to go across to the gas station sidewalk to continue their brigade.

As for this cattle call, I guess it was funny in a way that My friend and I were the only Cauc-Asians in that room on the 2nd floor of the Flushing Town hall where we had to fill out the forms. For once I was the minority and not just another thirties blond/white soccer "mom" type. When they called out "SAG" my friend was the only one out of about 100 Asians in the room that raised their hand. Still there is no way me or my friend will get cast on this movie.

We explained this to the casting person. As sad as things have got, you have to try everything in terms of the economy in crisis and lack of film and TV productions, you have to try everything.

Desperate Times indeed...

Sigh :(

Grant Wilfley Cattle Call for two feature films

2009-02-15T12:22:00.000-08:00

I swore to myself that I would not waste my time going to one of these cattle calls. Last time I went to one of these, I had to stand outside for hours in a huge line of people just to fill out some forms and get a quick digital snap-shot taken. So it was no surprise to head out into the city and see hundreds of people with headshots and resumes in their hands, shivering in the cold waiting to get inside to the doors of the church where they were holding the "auditions".

This cattle call was at least at a decent location over by W.59th St and 9th avenue at the church of Saint Peter the Apostle. it's definitely a huge area to hold a throng of people, though there were just TOO many people to bring in at once.

I recall being in this church before when I was on that movie "Don't Mess with the Zohan" starring Adam Sandler and ended up being a horrible experience. I knew that the location of the church sounded all too familiar and when I got to W 59th and started walking across Columbus Circle,the flashbacks of the horror became all too clear. I will never forget the 3 days/nights on that shoot with NO food and No respect at all. Oh did I mention NO waivers for being out in the cold miserable rains...The list goes on, though I will stop here on that "Zohan Mess"!

I really know how things work too well and how to work the system. Why in the world I still don't have my SAG Waivers...Ask the "GOD of SAG Waivers" I wish I knew why I am still a non-union loser after all this time.

Moving on...So I got there and luckily I saw my friend "D" in line as soon as I crossed the street. Talk about luck b/c this means I avoided having to wait in the line wrapping around the end of the block. Eventually after standing outside for about a half of an hour, which wasn't too bad, we got inside to the church where there were rows of chairs for our next step to sit down and fill out a form which consisted of everything from your name to your bra size. Oh yeah don't forget color and make of your car, if you have one. Very Important information...

The two movies that they were "auditioning" for was an untitled "Nancy Meyers Project" and oh yeah...the movie that I auditioned for on a callback which I didn't get and would have meant a feature role and instant SAG..Named "The Sorcerers Apprentice" . Yes, I auditioned for the role of a Russian Woman and was really close to getting it, though it didn't happen.

Here is the original blog of my devastating failure and how I blew an opportunity of a life time:

http://annietalentsearch.blogspot.com/2009/01/call-backs-for-sorcerers-apprentice.html

So you can imagine how I felt even going to this cattle call. It's humiliating and embarrassing at this point. There I was offered a "Golden Opportunity" and it was stripped from me in an instant.

I'm sure the entire New York Actors Roster will be called for the one thousand people scene that they plan to shoot in April of this year. I'm sure I'll get a waiver for being in a crowd scene. Lord knows I was right beside Julia Roberts in "Duplicity" which is showing on Movie Trailers right now and I got NOTHING out of that.

Life is a long lesson in humility by --- J.M. Barrie --- I think I have humiliated myself enough and need to move on..

Sigh ;(

Taping of the "NEW" Newlywed game

2009-02-05T07:49:00.000-08:00

Work has been really slow and you know times are bad when you accept game show tapings from Actor's Reps for income. The only way you can look at something like this is that it's money coming to you as it takes over 2 months to get paid the BIG $30.00/taping. Let's not forget the 10% commission. Times like this I really wish I continued higher education and got a masters degree in something.

On the other hand these days everything lacks originality anymore and ALL these supposed NEW shows are trying to capture the essence of the original success it had back in the 70's. They figure it's a safe bet and guaranteed recipe for ratings. In order to make it appear like it was an original thought, they put a twist to it and try to sell it off as a brilliant idea, when it is nothing more than a copy of a safe blueprint.

The "twist" in this 2009 version of the Newlywed game, they have only 3 couples as opposed to 4 as in the original one. Also the new host is a Woman now. In fact she has been a celebrity for decades and became famous back in the 80's with her hit song "Hold on to one more day!" Yes it's Carnie Wilson from Wilson/Philips. She was a great hostess and very friendly. She was also as big as a house being 5 months pregnant and all.

The segment that I thought was ridiculous was this segment at the end for a bonus round. The Newlyweds who win end up playing a bonus round with the "Goldyweds". Yes that's right, original Newlyweds back from that were on the show back in 1974. This is however not going to be on CBS, it will be aired on the GSN Or "Game Network" now.

Now the concept sounds great, though I was thinking as I'm sure many people were and that is how many couple from the 1970's could they possibly find that are still together after 34 years, still look good, and are still alive??

Not only that but it is really confusing as the Newlywed couple wins but then they have to play one more round and answer 5 questions to win a coffee maker or digital camera. The original ABC version was such success because of it's outlandish replies to the questions and catch phrases such as " Making Whoopee" referring to sexual intercourse.

The huge difference between now and the 70's is that we didn't have so much media and Internet at our exposure. Things have changed significantly and times are not as innocent as they were back then. Sure you had the "Watergate scandal" with Richard Nixon while he was in office, but still the times were simpler.

Now with all the new infrastructure and Internet, cell phones, texting, Facebook, My space, and of course the biggest change ever, a Black President. Who would have ever imagined a black man would get elected to office?? Well it happened.

As for this show, it may be a "neat" idea to bring it back, though not a great idea. You just can't bring something back 34 years later and expect the same results. It's a totally new era and it's a shame that there is lack of originality in these interesting times.

A.

On the set of "Nurse Jackie"

2009-01-30T18:09:00.000-08:00

(Jan 30, 2009)

Late night on Thursday I get a call out of nowhere from Todd at Central to see if I wanted to work on "Nurse Jackie" starring Edie Falco. This was actually great because they shoot this show over at the Kaufman Astoria studios which is walking distance for me.

That was fine and all though when I got there the wardrobe people were SO picky about wardrobe. They made me change into over 10 completely different outfits. You would think that I would have a line for "project Runway"!

They had me in Business outfit to Business casual to "Mother Type" to Upper east sider to regular person walking down the street. It was absurd how many changes I had to go through. Normally I bring black pants, a grey jacket and other mute colors which I have never had any problems with and NEVER had to exchange my voucher in for wardrobe.

This time I had no choice and really couldn't debate as the "Gay" wardrobe guys were adamant that I had to wear grey striped pants which barely fit me. In fact when they asked for my size, I nearly cringed and had to whisper my size to him to avoid embarrassment. The only thing I wasn't shy of was my shoe size. Yes they also gave me a pair of shoes to wear which turned out to be a hindrance later on.

So the final outfit I got was such a pain in the ass to walk and breathe in. I barely made it up to the holding are up those flights of stairs with those shoes on and then I sat in those "theater" type seats and had to "lean into it" with fear that I was going to split the seams of those pants for barely fitting into them. My crotch was aching and I had a case of Camel toe. It was gross but I could not get out of it this time.

Of course all that detailed wardrobe for absolutely no point at all. Ended up sitting in the "make-shift" holding area for 5 hours until the PA from Porto Rico, announced it was Lunch. She is actually really cool and she sat beside me and offered me gossip magazines like People, US, and Star. Trashy but entertaining. that managed to kill 2 hours out of the five siting there.

When Lunch was announced, she, the PA, was actually surprised as well that it was a walkaway lunch at Astoria Kaufman studios. For one thing they have a cafe downstairs and plenty of food at all times. Well NOT this time. Since I knew the area well and my watering hole is just around the corner, I went to the Swick and got an order of Mozzarella Sticks and had two light pints of beer. Yes, my pants were barely holding on at this point.

I got back to holding after the hour long walkaway and of course they were still far from shooting the next scene. A couple more hours went by and they took all of us to set. Basically we were led from one holding area to another holding are. This one was in a "make-shift" corridor of the Hospital setting which was around the corner from the main set, so we had to be quiet like mice!

After about twenty minutes of speaking like "Church mice", the third AD named Angie, who is someone I don't like, and acts very sarcastic and condescending, comes around to pick people for the scene. I of course don't really care about being a "walk-through" for this scene. In a way I lucked out b/c the shoes that wardrobe gave me, were "too loud" and I couldn't be used at all! Gee what a shame. I tried to explain to Angie that wardrobe gave me these "noisy" shoes, though she didn't want a part of it, bypassed me and picked other people instead.

Since she couldn't use me because of the "noisy shoes", I was on the sidelines and sitting on a hospital gurney waiting for this dreadful day to end. Finally near the end at the very last scene, the PA called me to go into the waiting room and sit down as if I'm waiting and pretend that I'm helping out a friend who banged up his head. That last for about a minute, and then the Non-union were wrapped.

It is just SO depressing how it's bad enough that I'm not SAG, but to not even be AFTRA, is even more embarrassing considering how easy it is to get into AFTRA.

What's even more humiliating is that Greg was there, this guy who I started out doing this kind of work and now he is in both unions and I got nothing.

I was just happy that the day ended and barely held up my head and left the building and walked home. The was the only good part about the entire day,was the location.

Sigh :(

On the set of "CUPID" as Homeless patron (day 2)

2009-01-20T10:13:00.000-08:00

(from Monday, January 19th)

I got my second day out of Cupid playing a homeless person. Either I'm really good at my role, or my picture up on casting networks is really that bad! The only good thing about playing the role of a homeless is that you don't have to get up too early to "pretty " yourself up.

Only a handful of people from Friday were selected to return on Monday. Still the message on Central Casting was even longer than Friday's. It was exactly 17 minutes long explaining how they wanted colors that "popped"!

The message went on and on how "Disney Homeless" are "Classy Homeless" and as should not have any holes in their wardrobe. Also they wanted colors that "POP". I can't stress this enough as it was SO ridiculous how many times she mentioned the word "Pop" on the hot line message line. I counted how many times she said the word "POP" in the 17 minute span. The count was 34 times!

So while we were in holding we had some fun and went through a list of things that POP! We toiled with everything from "Pop tarts to getting your Cherry Popped!" This game went on for a while and as we were amusing ourselves in our little circle of friends at our able, others were also mildly amused at our game.

You need something to pass time, and when it involves a good laugh, it's even better. In fact we did have a great time in holding that we couldn't stop laughing and took many silly pictures.

The few kids that were on set took it upon themselves to entertain and these three 10 year old girls spent over and hour doing charades with TV and movies as the topic. Those kids were really talented! As usual with all this stuff going on, I barely got through one page of my book and didn't even really listen to my ipod.

When things finally settled down, I talked to one of my favorite Pa's, Ellen. She is training to become first AD. She said HI to me immediately when I arrived that day. She knows me by name which is impressive b/c Anne is not a really unique name to remember.

She asked me how many waivers I still needed? I replied that I was embarrassed that I only have one. I really was and still am embarrassed. Truly. Some people do way less and get the SAG waivers for just breathing. I have done everything possible to get one to no avail. It's really depressing at this point. I am ready to give it all up.

So the way she asked me about the waiver felt as if she may help me out and give me a waiver. I have never asked her for one and I know how she hates people asking her for one. I was humble and didn't anticipate a thing, though I really thought I would have a breakthrough.

After already being in holding for over 8 hours, finally we were called up to set. It was the same soup kitchen we were in on Friday. This time we sat at different tables. I was directed by the AD to walk into the scene behind the main actress, who by the way kept flubbing up her lines. All I was thinking to myself was "And this is who gets the BIG bucks, amazing!"

Finally after she got her lines right, we got wrapped. I went downstairs and took my time returning wardrobe to make sure I was the last non-SAG person on line to sign out. I really thought I was going to get a waiver......I watched her write down the time and the lunch period, and then she signed it off for No -Union.. I WAS SO F'kin devastated, I have to tell you.

The way she asked me earlier about how many waivers I needed, I thought for sure that was leading to something. Obviously I was wrong. Even up on set my SAG friend Andi said I may get a waiver for where they placed me close to the principals.

Apparently not! If I was 20 years old and a size 2 barbie doll, I would have got that waiver NO questions asked. It really can be a cruel business, especially when you don't get ANY rewards for your efforts. It really blows. Times like this I wonder if I will EVER get into SAG.

Sigh ;(

On set of Ridgewood Bank Commercial

2009-01-20T10:11:00.000-08:00

(from Sunday, January 18th 2009)

After a very slow week, I figured I would just chill at home and catch up on some of my administrative work on the weekend. I have tons of papers to sort through. It is true when they say that things come into your experience when you least expect it. This reigns true as I was not planning on anything and then all of a sudden I get a call from my friend, Steph, who I have not heard from since last year or seen on any background sets.

She was going down her list and gave me a call to see if I wanted to do this Bank commercial. At first I was hesitant because I really hate working on Sundays. It sounded on the message that they (production) really needed people, and since it was a paid gig, and being financially crippled right now,I sure won't /can't turn down money!

So she gave me the details really quickly as she was on set when she called me. She gave me the info and the call time which was for 7:30 am to be over by the film center on 9th ave. Now that is not a terrible call time, though since I have not got up before 9am for the past month, it was really hard to do so. Also I kept tossing and turning all night long as I was worried that I would miss the alarm.

I got up at 6am and tossed some business casual clothes and headed for the subway. Sunday subways are the worst subways. I waited over 25 minutes before some light appeared through the dark tunnel with the train approaching. Finally I got on the "E" for "Evil" train and surprisingly the regular homeless guy was not on board. Guess I missed his shift!

I got out at Times Square 42nd street and exited out to a very snowy Sunday morning, and vacant streets of Broadway. I felt like I was walking in my own musical as the big fluffy chunk of snow were falling and Times Square was sparse of people. Maybe only one or two people tinkled past, but for the most part it was not the usual chaotic mess it can be in that area. It was peaceful and euphoric. Definitely a rare moment indeed.

I arrived at the "pick up area" on 9th ave right on time. I went into the lobby of the building where my friend Steph was and to my delightful surprise, my very good friend Bill Rapp was there as well. I knew it would be a good day from that point on, and it was.

After about twenty minutes, some of us got into the first van that was to take us to the actual Ridgewood bank in Queens. Through the inclement weather our driver was very cautious and drove extra slow for safety purposes. We arrived to location in about half an hour. We got out of the van, went inside through security to get our badges for the day and then downstairs to a nice array of big fluffy croissants, muffins, danishes, and much needed coffee!

About an hour later, we were led back up stairs to get to set, which was the bank. Our job was to be customers at a bank. Bill Rapp and I were assigned to each other to portray a couple at the bank. We had our deposit slips ready and went from the line to the teller a thousand times over and over. We made SO many deposits and got the same lollipop in return that was given to us by the teller as a thank-you for our patronage.

As we were standing in our second positions waiting for the director to call "Background Action", we stood by our teller friend who turned out to be a really sweet girl. We started talking and I found out that she lives in Astoria too. Not only that she also lives on 49th Street! I live on 49th street! Talk about coincidence. This bit of information really came in handy later on when it was time to leave.

The commercial itself moved relatively slow as many of these productions do. You would think that because they are using the bank itself that it would be easy to shoot this commercial. Not so much. They designed the commercial around a full sized bed that was placed in the middle of the bank.

On the bed they had this black man laying in the bed and pretending to be sleeping. Talk about the best role! All he had to do was lay in that bed while the other bank activity was going on. In the scene his wife gets up form the bed , puts on her housecoat and slippers and interacts with one of the bank managers, while her "husband" is still sleeping and totally oblivious to what is going on because he actually fell asleep for real!

During break, Bill and I thought the concept was great about wanting to take a nap while waiting in line to get banking done. So Bill and I tried out the bed for ourselves and came to the conclusion that the bed was indeed comfy.

The rest of the day was dragging by after that. We had lunch which were platters of sandwiches and cold pasta salad from a local restaurant in the area. Our eating are was in the basement of the bank where the real employees eat during their shift. There was a TV down there and all the guys were swarming around the TV watching their precious football. After Lunch we went back up to set and they were doing close-up shots of the bed and the actors.

Finally as the evening was setting in, they moved on to the next commercial which involved a motorcycle in the middle of the bank. This Woman who looked liked she rode bikes on a regular basis, rolled the Harley to the middle of the bank where they were to shoot the scene. I think she owned the bike b/c after she brought the bike in, the commercial evolved around 2 guys on the bike in the bank.

Bill Rapp and I did a quick walk through and that was about it. Since they used us so much in the first scene, they really didn't need us. That was a relief because it was getting late. The young teller that I was talking to earlier already told the director that she had to leave, so I followed suit and we caught a car service back to Astoria.

Got home around 9pm. I was lucky to meet up with Heather to take the car service home together. The other option would have been going all the way to the "L" train through Manhattan and all the way around back to Queens which would have taken over 2 hours.

This wasn't a terrible expereince, though I must admit that it sure was not worth only getting paid 75 dollars for a commercial like this should have been at least $150.00. Oh well the way things have been as of late, you have to take ANY money that comes in, no matter how bad the wage is.

On set of Cupid as Homeless Patron (day 1)

2009-01-20T10:09:00.001-08:00

(from Friday January 16th)

I got called by Central Casting to work on the Disney/ABC show
"Cupid". I haven't worked on this show since December 1st of last year. This is the first job for me this year. I have submitted to SO many bookings to be in a fashion show, upper east siders, elite roles, etc..I can't get booked on any of these. What do I get booked as?? I got booked as a homeless person! Yes that's right when you think of a homeless look, give Canada Anne a call. What an insult! Since I really need the money, and am going crazy from not working consistently,I took the job, reluctantly.

Since this was Disney, they didn't want us homeless to look "Homeless". The production hot line insisted that we don't look like raggedy homeless and no obscenities as this is Disney. Also they kept insisting that they wanted bright colors that "popped" like pinks, greens and yellows.

So we had to be clean respectable looking homeless. This message from Central casting went on for 14minutes repeating over and over again the wardrobe criteria. You would think you were dressing for the Oscars how specific and how many changes they wanted for a homeless look. ..and the Oscars goes to.. the best dressed Homeless person!

It actually turned out to be a better day than expected. The best part was that we were indoors. Though I was prepared for the worst and was going to make friends with a SAG player because they always get the heated cardboard boxes!

Though even being indoors didn't protect us from the frigid icy cold of a day where it went down to 5F. Every time the crew and grips were rolling equipment through the church doors, you felt the frigid blast of frosty air zip through your bones and numb you instantly.Our scene was taking place in a soup kitchen.We were all really thrilled to be indoors and to be served the best "Food Kitchen Slop" ever. The trays they gave us with food got increasingly more putrid with each passing hour of food sitting out in room temperature and growing bacteria every moment.

Though we all stayed in character and held our trays and nose up high knowing that this was all for a paycheck. It sure is fun portraying a homeless when you know you have home to go back to. Some background really got a good "Whiff" of the rotting food:

Though with the little amount of work I have been getting lately, I have to wonder where I'm going to be a month from now. Where will any of us be?

NO SAG WAIVER on Duplicity Movie Trailer!!!

2009-01-10T17:47:00.000-08:00

I actually just got back from being away 2 weeks up in Canada. I am getting e-mails and a plethora of phone calls that I am indeed seen, CLEARLY, in this upcoming Julia Roberts and Clive Owen movie "Duplicity"! I didn't even know how clear it was until I saw the trailer for myself. The bummer about that is all I got was a measly 75 dollars and a walkaway lunch.

The funny part has got be that in that scene I was angry b/c Julia Roberts is SO cheap and such a snob that I was dissing her, and this is what got on film. I was pissed that we had to be on set for Saturday , 4am call time. I was the last one to get to set and screamed at by some shitty 20-something PA to get to set.

So when I got to Grand Central where set was, the PA's were placing people and I disappeared for a while to avoid getting a prop. I basically placed myself by the balcony b/c I was too tired to go down to the main floor. Without even realizing it, Julia Roberts was right beside me.

No one told me to move, just to turn around. Julia was a real snob and told the first AD to tell me to keep the talking down saying I was too loud talking to my friend who got cut out of the scene. I was glad when that day was over. Sometimes you have to make your own opportunities.

Sometimes you have to break the rules to get ahead. Too bad I got NO waiver for that. I really didn't even think of it at the time. Now that I have settled in I am going to call up SAG and see if I can get a waiver or something out of this.

What is amazing here is that I only got 75 dollars to be in a movie trailer. Julia meanwhile gets 75 GA-zillion dollars for being a cheap, snobby movie whore! Go Figure!

Here is the clip to view. You will see me in the Grand Central scene at approx 1:48 in the clip:
http://duplicitymovie.net/?__source=gglduplicity+trailerMovieTitleDuplicity_Brand&sky=gglduplicity+trailerMovieTitleDuplicity_Brand

Sigh ;)

Wilkomen 2009! Bienvenue!

2009-01-10T17:18:00.000-08:00

Finally made it to my callback for the Sorcerer's Apprentice, a Disney film. Spent the last two weeks up in Canada Land for the Christmas Holidays. Being around with family and Friends was great, though I could not stop thinking about this audition.

I entered this new year with "Great Expectations" knowing that I had a booked audition to come back to. This wasn't for some lousy "cattle call", this was for a real role/part and a chance to really get ahead after all the crappy lousy non-rewarding background work I have done in the past.

Perhaps I focused on it too much and this is why chaos ensued. It wasn't horrible, though not my all time best. I hope I get another call back to re-audition. The fact is when in this lifetime will I EVER get a golden opportunity like this one again?? The following describes that days events:

The call back was as expected where they wanted me to partner up with a Russian man and to see how that would look on camera. So from the very start in the waiting room, I come in with my Russian hat and start with "I'm Herer for ze callback, Yes!" Seconds later, Julie the Woman who initially auditioned me came out and said Hi and introduced my partner to me.

This man was probably union and very snobby. I tried to talk to him, but he was like dead wood. Normally you want to talk to your partner to get a feel for what they are like and it helps to connect in the audition process as we may end up working together.

I asked him who sent him here and he goes "St. Clair" agency. That was the extent of our communication outside in the waiting room. So I got ZERO vibes from him, and was called in shortly after to come into the room.

The Woman Julie who initially auditioned me was there plus 5 other casting directors this time in the room. I didn't get intimidated and went right into character with this dead wood of a man. We both get into the scene which is basically where the Russian man has this huge urn that he found at some flea market.

So he is opening up this urn with a crowbar and the lid is really heavy so he is grunting and moaning. My part was to basically get angry and be the wife and nudge him on to what he is doing and what an idiot he is. All of a sudden he gets the lid open and POOF a big black smoke and some evil spirit like a genie appears. The Russian Woman is taken aback in utter shock and races out and screams. This is what I did, only too assertively.

There was this huge backdrop they put in behind us as a green screen. So when I did the SHOCK thing, I ran out to the the corner wall, grabbed the backdrop curtain and down it came! It was SO embarrassing. Luckily they had a step ladder handy and immediately fixed it. I got one more shot at it as the director was explaining what he wanted from the character.That was it. Said Thank you and Good bye. No hints if I will hear a word from my agent, nothing.

This is worse than American Idol, b/c at least with Idol, the judges tell you right then and there if you suck and didn't get the part. Now it's this huge waiting stressful game of did I get it or not. If I don't get called soon, then I guess it's gone, and then I will wonder what I did wrong for weeks.

The only good thing is that by "breaking the curtain" at least they will remember me. Don't know if that is a good thing or bad thing. I have no idea. I wish I knew. So that's the latest.

Now I'm even more stressed out with the unknown. Sigh ;(

On set of Cupid @ HellSGATE Studios, Queens

2008-12-07T16:12:00.000-08:00

Rush calls and crappy shows that will bomb is all that seems to be coming in these days. What pisses me off the most is that you submit for all of these shows and say you are available and they don't call you.

Then in the morning in a panic attack with BOLD CAPS, they have ***RUSH CALL*** Must report immediately!!!! So you call these bitches at Central Casting and they are like "WHO told you to call!!!!" I tell her " I am calling about the Rush call..." (pause) Then she says.. "Well Jon doesn't do the Cupid Rush Call!!!!!!" (breath) "Give Shaniqua a call!" Meanwhile Shaniqua is right there in the office as I hear in the background someone calling her name.

I Interrupt and say bluntly "Do you need people or not!" Then she holds the phone to her chest and I could hear her whispering to Shaniqua! Finally I get transferred to Joanie who gives me a check in number and asks how long it will take me to get there. I tell her 15 minutes. Meanwhile I deliberately took over an hour getting ready on purpose.

So I finally get to the set and its filming here in Queens, though it's not Kaufman or Silver Cup Studios. Instead it's at "HELLGATE" studios all the way down by the east river by the Triboro bridge. The only good thing about this was that I could take the Q18 bus around the corner from here.

That bus ride was about 20 minutes. When I got on the bus, I asked the bus driver "Are you going to 2nd street???" He replied, "Oh you're going to CUPID." He said this in a way that he knew all about CUPID and the evil of it all, secretly thinking : "I know all about Cupid and you ARE going to have a Excruciatingly LONG day on set! Good Luck, thank God my shift is ending soon! ha ha Sucker!"

Turns out that Mr. Bus Driver was right! The original call time was at 6am and they went until 11pm! I'm not kidding. The only good thing about being on a RUSH call was that I got there at 10am, and that was still a long day.

The worst part about this was that this scene they were doing was actually a re-shoot of the show that they taped back in July over at Silver Cup Studios. The reason I remember this SO well was that they had a Mariachi Band on set. Well guess what?? The exact same Mariachi members were back and playing the same damn tune. IT was like an unwanted dejavu!

This is why this show IS going to bomb and be canceled within the first week of it's release. Too many re-shoots and plus it's already a re-make of the show back in the 90's starring Jeremy Piven that only lasted a week. Why even make a new version of this show?? It's called NO originality anymore. It's ALL CRAP!

On top of all this I am really getting tired about these guys bragging that they have nine waivers. So why don't they join SAG?? Probably lying. Through ALL this I am still stuck at one lousy SAG waiver. I hope they go on Strike. I will be the biggest SCAB!

A ;)

Kings at Broadway Stages

2008-11-23T12:35:00.000-08:00

In between working on "No Love in the City", I got work on KINGS, again. I was rather hesitant to accept the work, since my last experience on this show was horrible over in the Brooklyn Navy Yards. Though this time it was to be a little better as it was an indoor event.

I did an overnight over at the Public Library in Manhattan that Thursday night. This is just an example of what a BIG budget this show really is. To be able to get that space must have been mint. Right after we wrapped, I had to go back to "No Love in the City". So I pulled a 38 hours on set back to back with my friend Laura.

The only reason we did that was that we needed to accept this in order to get the guarantee of work for two days the following week. What a BIG week it turned out to be with the election and seeing History revealed with Barrack Obama becoming the first Black President of the United States.

That was definitely hope and something to look forward to. What was not something to look forward to was the location of Broadway stages which was in the middle of nowhere by the rail yards way past McGuiness Boulevard in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn. Luckily our call time wasn't for 6am. Still trekking all the way there was a hike.

Taking all this work is basically the only thing keeping me alive these days. When I'm at home I have nothing going on and I get bored and depressed staring at the same four walls wondering if I will ever have success or even get a SAG waiver. The quest for the almighty Sag waiver seems more like it will never happen. Some people just get the Sag waiver for waking up in the morning. I struggle through so many different elements and I am really trying, yet nothing ever seems to happen. Still I prefer to be working as it is a paycheck, as pathetic as non-union wages are.

Back to the set of Kings at the Broadway Stages and the tale of the PIG! Ah yes the 500-pound boar that was brought to the Brooklyn to be a star. The scene was in this amazing courtroom that was built for this show. Magnificent layout, including a panoramic poster of Columbus Circle in the daytime during the season of either early Spring or Summer being the fact the trees in the picture were in full green blossom.

The King Silas had his enormous desk in the front as a real judge would and he was ready to hear the cases with his Chancellor by his side. In the room there were several groups waiting to have the judge hear their case. Some of the groups were these "Goth Kids", and another was a church group.

The one case that involved the pig was a case between two farmers in the land. It was a dispute where one of the farmers blamed his neighbors pig from destroying his fence on his property. So at this time King Silas looks up to the main doors and looks up in anticipation of this pig that was supposed to come through the doors. NO sign of the pic. Nothing.

This is after of course we got the "Pig Speech" not to look at the pig, touch the pig, and just to completely ignore the boar upon his entrance. Well as it turned out, that wasn't too difficult b/c the pig got stage fright and never made it to set. They even had a "pig shrink" on set being that it was a SAG pig. Since the pig didn't fulfill his contract, the next day we had a plethora of bacon and no one saw the pig again. Makes you wonder.

A.

No Love in the City Russian Tour bus

2008-11-23T11:43:00.001-08:00

(Thursday October 9, 2008-November 9th 2008)

The set of "No Love in the City", a Russian movie about three young Russian guys that come to New York to have a great time with Ladies and indulge in the Wild Party lifestyle. An Angel comes down from the heavens and makes them all impotent until they realize their true loves and stop cavorting around in debauchery.This concept sounds stupid, though I have to tell you that working on this movie was by far one of the most pleasant experiences I have had in a very long time.

What made this by far the best set for this entire year were the fun experiences shared with friends and just the wonderful attitude of the cast and crew that made it memorable in a good way. I also must mention that we got paid cash on set and we had wonderful international food which I dined on for days because I took some leftovers home in Tupperware which I shared with my friend and roommate.

I worked on this set six times. From the club scene to the restaurant scene to the "get-away" Russian tour bus. Being a Russian tourist was by far the best scene and most enjoyable times on this set and perhaps all year.

Playing the part as Russian tourists we were cast to sit on top of this Double-Decker tour bus. The three young Russian guys were to be out "tour guides" taking us on a wild journey racing wildly through Manhattan down Canal Street to the cobblestone streets of Brooklyn .

The stunt driver and bus driver in the scene drove that bus wildly speeding across the Manhattan Bridge to the Promenade in Brooklyn, where the bus gets stopped and the Russians get arrested by the (fake) police. All along our tour guides are freaking out as their is a helicopter overhead trailing the bus all the way from Manhattan to the other side of the bridge.

Never have I had such an adventure on a film shoot as I did on this one. We ALL shared SO many laughs and felt free and alive. Especially when we were on the double Decker bus top level and "touched" sign posts and leaves of trees as we drove by. It became like a challenge and a silly game, though it was fun, really was.

This was one of the few sets that I really was sad to see come to an end.

A.

Kings Brooklyn Navy Yards

2008-10-21T09:26:00.000-07:00

(from October 20, 2008)

I was on that NBC show KINGS which was an absolute horrible experience. The call time was for 4:30 am bus pickup in Manhattan to go to the Brooklyn Navy Yards. Our holding area was this defunct falling apart warehouse which probably had asbestos and the best part was there was NO HEAT!

It was actually a few degrees warmer outside even though we were technically outside. They did get us on set immediately after wardrobe check to a scene which involved us, the extras,portraying dockworkers who are angry and rallying to the mayor of this fictional town for taxes and losing our homes.

You would think this TV show was a feature film with the "I am Legend" demonstrations of angry people shoving , pushing and screaming in this rally. To make the effect of this rally even more real, they (production) threw not one but two or three smoke bombs into the crowd, which was us, and continued on this rant pushing against these fake police lines and choking on this thick billowing black smoke.

After finding out that the non-union are getting ZERO bump in pay or a waiver, I all of a sudden came down with asthma and me and several other ladies went to go sit away from this smoke. As if this wasn't enough aggravation, they were planning on a "Wet scene" to hose down people to bring on the effect of a rally like they had back in the 60's with the demonstrations.

We wrapped at 6pm and were told to call for 9pm for call times for Day 2 of this travesty. So I call up the GW hot line and they decided to randomly pick numbers off the list and those of us who were promised two days of work were now out of a days pay.

To make matters even worse, my friend Jeff told me that those idiots at GW were calling people desperately at 6:30am b/c a multitude of people that they did keep on the list DID NOT show up for the call time at the bus pickup. My Friend Jeff said if they waiver him he will go. They replied "NO"! Okay than Goodbye and good luck!

In a way I think I lucked out b/c in the message they told people to bring towels as the "wet" scene was to occur that day. Wonder why people didn't show up. Lets see $75.00 to get hosed down with water and another $750.00 for the hospital bill that I would have got for acquiring pneumonia! Amazing. Meanwhile SAG is getting $500.00/hr. They told non-SAG to "be a good sport"! Ya right.I am SO tired of being abused like this. It's sickening how they abuse people like this.

Despite all this, I have to say that I hope this show makes it just b/c of the BIG budget and undertaking of background on such a large scale for a NBC show. Otherwise this will be like many of the garbage shows being produced now and get cancelled within a week of it's release.

Also We really do need some decent programming to STOP the growth of this disease that is widespread named "REALITY SHOWS!"

A.

Damages in DA Bronx!

2008-10-21T09:24:00.001-07:00

(from October 15 and 16)

It's amazing how they are shooting "Ugly Betty" down the block from where I live here in Queens, and yet I get shipped to the Bronx for 6am call time for that boring show "Damages". You can't even begin to imagine how upset I was when I went to the office of those idiots at Extra Mile, told them that I want to be booked on Ugly Betty, and yet they have the nerve to ship me to the Bronx.

Normally I would have tried to get on the set of Ugly Betty, though since the bullshit call time of 6am was slated for Damages, that screwed up any chance as the call time down the block was for 8am. So it was a choice to "suck it up" and take a guaranteed paycheck or to take a chance to see if I could get on Ugly Betty.

Like a dedicated good soldier, actually a stupid solider, I went to the Bronx. Mind you this wasn't in a good location. Then again is any part, save for Riverdale a good part of the Bronx?? To make matters even worse, the idiots at Grant Wilfley gave the WRONG information to get to the holding loaction.

The information offered to us told us to take the number "4" train or the "D" to 181st stop. That would have been fine IF the holding was a block away, NOT a 45 minute hike at 6am through unknown territory in the Bronx!

I recall leaving my house in Queens at about 4:40 am ann of course walking by all the permit signs that were posted up for Ugly Betty. That was an extra kick in my crotch to see that. Anyways when I finally arrived in the Bronx, I had to transfer at 165 st stop which was Yankee stadium stop on the 4 line. There are police commnad stations and cops on patrol there 24/7 for areason.

Just in passing, I saw a couple of arrests being made at 5am! I knew how bad this day was already going to be, and every minute that passed I became more depressed knowing that just down the block they are shooting Ugly Betty, and here I am on a 2-hour roadtrip trying to get to my miserable destination.

So I get out of the 181 st stop and I start walkin and keep walking, and then walk some more. The sun is in the vast distance and not ready to rise for at least another hour or so. In the pitch darkness of the early morning, I look ahead to see this elderly white Woman, in heels and a suitcase, dressed nicely. Obviously she is not from the Bronx and is a background player. The suitcase was a dead giveaway.

I caught up with her and introduce myself. Just behind us was another guy heading to set in the same direction. So the three of us begin walking, and walking and walking some more. We get to this BIG decline hill with a million stairs and look down towards the horizon to how far this place really was.

We stopped by an elementary school where they had security and the Woman said "Just keep walking, and walking, and then walk some more!" "It is a hike!" So the three of us embrace ourselves and continue down the path to nowhere.

Finally we get down the hill. It is more difficult for the elderly Woman as she has on hells and is carrying a suitcase. The sun raises up with a sneak peak of the sunny day to come, for some of us. As we walked across the main intersection, we are about to cross and almost make it until the elderly Woman, takes a trip from the curb and fell face first on the road. It looked awful seeing it happen, though when me and the guy got her up, she was shaking, scraped up, and barely fine.

From that point me and the guy had to carry the elderly Woman all the way when we eventually made it to holding. We were already 45minutes late and the PA and nobody said a word b/c they knew what a lousy deal this was and how Grant screwed up the directions. On top of it we brought in this wounded Woman.

The set itself t was 14 hours in a hospital on the mental patients floor. I would have liked to get an AFTRA waiver for this nightmare, though I got nothing. The only thing I did get was a Friend with a mental patient. I offered her a bag of cool ranch Doritos. Amazing how a bag of chips or an offering of food is an international language no matter what mental state of mind you are in.

My own personal state of mind was deteriorating. I was on the verge of committing myself to a room there in the mental ward. The asshole 2nd AD first released all the non-union, all 4 of us at about 7pm, which would have been decent. The only problem with this was that as we were walking back to the 20 minute hike from the hospital to holding, he contacts the PA for ALL of us to come back! I can't even describe to you how I badly I felt like slitting my wrists right then and there.

We were at that point held hostage, literally in this tiny one room all 20 of us 4 non-union and 16 Aftra members. Some in gowns, some dressed as Doctors. I was a visitor. I almost told of the 2nd AD for keeping us in there like caged animals. After another 3 hours, they released us and it took another 2 hours to get back home, where they were just wrapping for Ugly Betty.

Misery just got a new name and it's called "DAMAGES"!

Sigh ;(

Winning Season

2008-10-21T09:22:00.000-07:00

October 9, 2008 (night)

"I bless the day I found you, I want to stay around you, and so I beg you, Let it be me". This is the first phrasing of the song "Let it be me" by the Everly Brothers. This song has never been such a staple or made me feel so real and gave me chills down my spine that night in the cafeteria while we were waiting to get on the set of "The Winning Circle".

After being on set of the first of many "Russian tour bus rides" on the set of the 'No Love in the City' many of us were booked on this set of Winning Circle. The only reason that I accepted this was because I knew there would be many people on it that I knew from the other set. Little did I know how wonderful the first part of that set would be, because of music.

We were sitting in the cafeteria where holding was. The French/Brazilian guy Cal who can't play the guitar save for one song "Unchained Melody" and barely, brought his crappy nylon stringed guitar to set. After he got bored of himself and didn't get the attention that he sought, he let me take a crack at the guitar.

It was such a piece of crap and SO out of tune. I tried to tune it to the best of my ability and attempted to play "You can't always get what you want by the Rolling Stones". I got through it, though I knew it wasn't my best performance with that crappy guitar.

Soon after, there he was out of the blue. Our Music saviour of the night arrived. His name was Lawrence and he was a skinny and shy kind of Man with a military kind of haircut and perhaps trained in the military of some kind at one point in his life. Though he brought passion in music and when he played the guitar, it was magical, truly.

He grabbed hold of the guitar and sat down at the table and asked me to sit down to sing with him. He started playing "Dream", "Whenever I want you, all I have to do is Dream, dream dream dream.."Then he played "Chains" by the Beatles. I sang that and all the songs he played were brilliant.

Then he played "Let it be me". Now I barely remember this song as it is not in my era. Though when Lawrence played it, he fed Dawn and I the words, and we collectively got into it and felt the song as if it were just written yesterday and were captivated back in time when this song really hit heart strings.

The way Lawrence played it and the way we sang it was simply amazing. I will never forget how enchanted and happy I was to sing and sing well and harmonize with Dawn the way we did. Everyone around us was tuned in as well and mesmerized to the sweet tune as it is.

I felt SO alive, nothing mattered, no troubles in the world, just the sweet song and music kept me in tune and made me feel alive. I wished that moment had never ended. It wasn't about the song, it was about the tune. It was about the moment, about being alive and feeling good for a change. All my troubles and worries evaporated in that moment. Nothing else mattered, save for delivering a beautiful melodic song in Harmony.

It was the kind of moment that when it ends, you feel like a part of you has died or withered away. Yet you just had such a good time, your soul is fulfilled , and you are at peace, no matter what the outcome, you will be alright.

Our ending came when we were finally called to get to set to be spectators on this basketball game. I was hoping it would be a short set, though it ended up being a long drained out set to the every last minute. The worst part was probably coming home which took me 2 hours from Bayside Queens.

Still as tired as I was that morning and when I finally got home, all I thought of and all I dreamt of was that moment. A moment I will treasure.

"So never leave me Lonely,Tell me you love me only, and that you'll always, let it be me."

A.

Life on Mars in the East Village

2008-10-21T09:21:00.001-07:00

(Originally from Tuesday October 7, 2008)

Of all the shows recently, this is one of the shows that I have been wanting to get on for a very long time. When I finally got the call to be on it, I was excited. Mind you that excitement soon turned sour when I heard what I was being booked for.

The show "life on Mars" takes place in the 1970's about a New York City homicide detective who suddenly finds himself inexplicably transported from 2008 to 1973. The attractive part to be on this show is that it takes place in the 70's, a decade of my birth and to dress up in 70's attire play a part in this role would have been fun.

No such luck. The scene that I get booked for is this funeral scene, and it is current year, 2008. I'm like "What a Bummer!" I have been trying for weeks to get on this show. Also the biggest blow to me is that normally they shoot "mars" over at Kaufman Astoria Studios. Not this time. Of course it's over by 2nd street and avenue "A" area in the East village.

The only good thing I suppose is that I didn't have to go to get a fitting and all I had to wear was a black outfit appropriate for a funeral scene. Not too difficult as the majority of my clothes are dark and depressing. Reflects my career, I suppose.

The day itself was extremely long. The easy part was having the "mourners" all 200 of us going down the line to have the "Costume designer"(that's what this midget Kathy Griffin look-alike resembles) calls herself to make her feel important. So she examines us all and gives us the "O.K." seal of approval. I mean how can you screw up black for a funeral. Unless you are a whore and wearing lace panties in mourning for the death of one of your best clients.

The only thing that had to specific was the cops uniforms and how detailed in rank they had to get the patches to match up. That did take a long time. In fact that took about 8 hours of all us mourners in holding while the Police officers were examined to perfection by the "Kathy-Griffin" Midget. Since she was a midget, it took extra long time as she had to take a stool with her or climb up a ladder for the really tall cops.

After all that, Lunch was called. It was a walk-away lunch. This meant spending about 10 dollars of our already hard earned 40 dollars, i think not! My friend Linda and I went on a scavenger hunt to see where Kraft services for the crew and SAG was. What really sucks about "walk-away" lunches is that the only real thrill of going to these sets is the social aspect of it and the FOOD! Yes, Food, Glorious Food! When the Food is not there, the thrill is gone, and you really can't survive on the sustenance of the humor of your pals on set, no matter how satiable laughter can be.

Thanks to my friend Linda's outwardly sexual friendly nature to the male species, she got directed to the "hidden" table where they had nice sandwiches and food at our disposal. We grabbed a few sandwiches and left the table before we would be questioned. Survival skills 101 baby!

Finally after lunch, we were called to set which was all the way on East 3rd street, closer to ave B. One by one we piled into the church and grabbed a seat on one of the pews. All I could think if was "It's been a while since I've been in church", and started thinking about all the times my Mother dragged me to church to repent and become a good catholic. Obviously that failed me too.

The scene itself was long with a flashback feel and a ghost that we were to pretend not to see or acknowledge. The actress made famous in the 90's on the Cosby Show was Lisa Bonet up in front with her pregnant belly and playing the part of a widower.

After hours of being told being everyone to hush and quiet down, and our butts getting really sore from sitting on those hard benches, I looked up to the Lord and said "Haven't I paid my dues already?" "All I ask for is a SAG waiver, Lord!" IS that asking for too much??

Well if anything, my Catholic Mother would be proud of how many hours I spent in church. That truly made up for lost time.

CA ;

Lipstick Jungle in SOHO

2008-10-21T09:20:00.001-07:00

(Originally from Monday October 6, 2008)

Every time I have been on Lipstick Jungle it has been a very long day and there is a "walk-away" lunch. Mind you they did have a decent breakfast for us with the usual buffet trays of sausages, scrambled eggs and fresh toast.

Our holding area was on Wooster street in this really old 18th century building. Wooster is really not such a popular street unless you are really familiar with the Soho area. I've never been a fan of the SOHO area , but they are trying to do a "Sex in the City" type of show here and SOHO IS fashion and art.

We didn't wait too long int the small holding area which was only designed to hole about 20 people and there weer over 80 of us. Also the fact that there was only one bathroom and no changing area, it made the lineups really long.

We got to set and started around the Prince St. area walking up and down the streets. I was in a scene and did a cross over directly in front of Brooke Shields and Lindsay Price who were just coming out of a store in the scene.

It was rather boring and time was dragging on. After about 2 hours they went to another location over by West Broadway. It was the same crossovers walking back and forth over a million times in the scene.

I rarely go to the SOHO area and didn't realize how busy the streets are with tourists and paparazzi. There were a bunch of paparazzi, who I thought at first were actors, taking shots of Brooke as she was carrying her daughter to her trailer. Normally on these sets we are not supposed to take pictures of the stars, though since the paparazzi were taking pictures, I jumped right in and got a couple of candid shots myself of Brooke walking across the street carrying her child.

That moment was probably the only exciting thing to account for. We had a walk-away Lunch and my friend and I were invited to grab some food at Krafty to go to this nice Woman's apartment over by Bleeker St. We had to be back in about an hour. When we got back to the tiny holding area, the P.A. asked everyone to get into their second changes which meant another huge lineup for the one and only bathroom available.

We all went outside to the scene by W. Broadway and the only good thing about that spot was that we had those SOHO steps where we could sit down on, as they never ended up using as anyways. What else is new? After the typical 14 hours on set for this show, we were released.

I hope this show makes it, though in my opnion it won't last long simply b/c the concept/ sotry line is just trying to hard to be like "Sex and the City", which it clearly is not.

Damages bar scene by Comix

2008-10-21T09:19:00.000-07:00

(Originally from Thursday Sept 25,2008)

Of all the shows I have ever been on, the set of Damages has to be the most boring of all time. I'm amazed this show has even won awards. I have been on "Damages" before and either it's a very boring time, or a very long boring time.

Our holding area was over at Comix Comedy club located all the way down by 14th Street and 9th ave, practically in the meat market district where they have docks and brick roads by the Hudson. I always hated this area and have never performed at this comedy club. I know many who have including Paul Mercurio and on the day we were there, the scheduled act was someone I knew from the line-up I was in for Last Comic Standing.

Also on the bill was Chris March who was one of the 5 finalists on Project Runaway. I guess after doing a reality show and not winning, what else are you going to do. Unless of course in my case I didn't pass the last years audition and really have nothing to laugh about these days. Especially after being in a line0up for that shitty Last Comic Standing auditions for 22 hours only to audition with 10 people at a time in front of a 15 year old production assistant. How degrading just thinking about that is.

So what made this day suck was that I am known as a comedian and you would think this my venue. The only good thing about having holding at Comix was that it was a big space for only 50 background and I sat in the back room alone.

We got called to set about an hour and a half after our call time which was 10am. We walked over to set which was this restaurant/bar across the street on the brick paved roads. This bar was cold and dark, and I found my way to sit at the bar in the scene. Of course you don't get real drinks which means you have to mime drinking, clinking glasses, and pretending to be drunk. Wish I was drunk at that point it was SO boring. You have to be quiet like a mouse while the conversation is focused on the two main actors and you are nothing but a blur.

We had Lunch around the 6 hour mark over back at Comix. There was a nice layout of food in a buffet style set up right along the main stage of club. I never performed at this club. After Lunch was done, the caterers began piling food into the garbage into this huge garbage can which was right in the center of the stage. I thought that was so prolific and had to get a picture of the garbage can on stage representing my career! Sad but true!

You really do need a good sense of humor to be able to deal with the long excruciating long hours and literally being treated like garbage many of the times, especially if your non-union. Don't know if I will looking back and laughing at any of this one day, though I am getting tons of material, even if it does come from garbage.

CA;

Unorthodox Jew for a day in Astoria

2008-10-21T09:18:00.002-07:00

(originally from September 19, 2008)

The next day I was booked on the movie "Unorthodox" again. This time the location was non other than Astoria, Queens, my neighborhood. Astoria stretches from the border of Woodside all the way to Ditmars blvd. This location was right in between over at 37th st at 30th ave, which was a fifteen minute walk for me! The actual holding area was the Lutheran church which I walk by all the time en route to go to the Mexican place for food.

Our call time was for noon and I left my house at 11:45am! When I got to holding, a couple of my non-union friends were already there. It was still early and the vouchers to fill out were not even there yet, so a friend and I walked over to the food truck which was ALL the way over by 34th and Broadway, which was just about 10 blocks away.

When we finally got to the truck, it was well worth it as they had hot dogs, hamburgers on the grill and sandwiches and wraps all around. We loaded up and got some aluminum foil to wrap our plates for the walk back. Luckily the weather was nice, though it was humid too.

Once we got back to holding more people arrived and the same procedure with getting wigs "stapled" to our heads was in full gear. Since I was on the set the previous day, I knew the system and totally avoided getting a wig and headed straight to wardrobe to get a headscarf.

Unlike the previous day, soon after we got our makeup done and approved the PA called for anyone that was ready to come immediately to set. I though this will be great. You know that the sooner they start, means they want to get this done so you will be wrapped earlier!

The first shoot was over by Parisi Bakery under the N/W elevated train lines. It's an extremely noisy and populated area with all the people and trains going past practically every 5 minutes. They had the Parisi bakery "dressed up" in Hebrew signs, though that did not deter regular patrons who kept walking into the store not aware that it was closed for the day.

The scene that they were creating was a busy intersection of Jews doing their daily business getting bagels and breads for their families etc. So in order to "create" this family feel, they Incorporated Women to portray Mothers and some had "fake" plastic babies with carriages to stroll down the block. Some had real live kids. Now the difference is that the "plastic babies" don't cry or scream and do what they are told. The "real" kids, well do I really need to explain.

As luck would have it, namely my bad luck, the PA calls me over and sees me to be fit with not one child but two screaming children!!!! What do I look like a Mother?? Apparently I do and what hurts me more is that I have NO children of my own to speak of at my age. So not only was it embarrassing when these two kids were crying and screaming, though it felt humiliating and I felt like an even bigger failure then ever before.

To make things even worse, it was humid and I was only a few blocks from my local establishment where I go to imbibe occasionally..okay frequently! The point is these were NOT even my kids and I was SO embarrassed as people passed by and looked upon me as a bad Mother as if I could not control my own kids. They didn't even have to utter a word, I could feel their dismay and disgust with their passive gestures as they scraped by me and giving me "the look". These people didn't know what was really going on.

The worst part was that I tried and tried. I brought out the best kid weapons that the "real" Mother gave to me to calm down the kids. I gave them the animal crackers, the bottle, the stuffed duckie, and the Belly Button book! Nothing. Every time I had to roll around the carriage with those two kids and turn around to go to "Back to one", they felt like I was Kidnapping them and wailed out to their Mommy who was only two feet away!

I got to the point that I couldn't take anymore and I gave the kids back. I told the PA that unless I get a SAG waiver for this, I will not do it anymore. Seconds after I muffled up the courage to stick up for myself, the scene was over and they were moving on to the next location.

The next scene was over by the discount store "Dee and Dee" over by 36th street and Broadway, beside the Croatian bar, Scorpio and the European meat place across the now defunct "America's 99 cent store. The production had the entire two block stretch done up to look like a Jewish neighborhood which included a Pickle store in big barrels for sale.

This involved a "chase scene" where the main actress is carrying her groceries and is running away from a predator and drops her groceries. After stating my discontent about having those two kids, I was placed by a clothing store to pretend I was checking out dresses.

Sounds easy enough though after standing out there for hours under the sweltering sun, I was getting sweaty and tired. Luckily this is a low budget film and they wrapped us the non-union at the 6 hour mark. That was a relief in a way, though when we went back to holding the caterers had a nice food buffet set up, and we were not invited to this feast. I always try to get the food anyways, though it was difficult this time as they had the "Food Nazi" sit by the buffet with a pen and paper marking down anybody heading to the table to eat.

In a way I was glad we were done and since I had no wig on, I quickly gave wardrobe back their stuff, signed out and headed to my local establishment which was only 4 blocks away. I really needed a drink after that ordeal.

I tell ya, it's tough being a Jew, even if it is for a day. Oy Vey!

CA ;(

Unorthodox, Jew for a day in Brooklyn

2008-10-21T09:18:00.001-07:00

(originally from Thursday, September 18, 2008)

I got a call from Extra mile to work on a movie called "Unorthodox" . The title says it all, it's movie about "Unorthodox Jews". When we got the instructions about the shoot we were told to wear plain clothes and no make-up or very minimal as we were cast to portray Orthodox Jews.
I thought this could be cool dressing up as a Jew. I always wanted to be Jew for a day!

I got to the holding area which was in Prospect Park area of Brooklyn, which is not a popular Jewish area as Williamsburg is where you see Hasidic Jews all over. The subway stop was at Grand Army Plaza which is a really nice area. As you walk to the holding area, you pass by blocks of gorgeous brownstones and tree lined streets. I walked a while until I got to the actual holding which was the Catholic church of the Virgin Mary.

When we got to the basement of the church, there was already a buffet of food lined up on tables that was already devoured into and practically gone. That was probably for crew and extras that were there since the morning hours. Since our call time was for 4pm, we were denied the food, even though the food was nearly done and only scraps of food remained.

The main event had to be the makeup department which was set up with all sorts of beards, wigs, hairpieces to put on us and create the authentic Jewish look. They dressed the Women in the wigs and scarves and all the men got the beards! It was actually fun. Not fun getting the wig put on.

When it was my turn to sit in the chair to get made over, the makeup artist tried several different wigs on me. She began getting my hair prepared by sticking and shoving pins into my head. She poked and jammed so many pins into my head, I could have been called "Pinhead!"

I started complaining and it really did hurt, and she took all the pins out and decided to just give me the head scarf. What a relief that was. Some were not so lucky and got the full wig put in and the men got beards glued on to their faces. It was very uncomfortable for many of the guys as they were complaining it was itching them.

All this took up about 3 hours until the "designers" were satisfied that we represented the Jews well enough. After we were done with the makeup and wardrobe, we sat in holding, and then we sat some more. Four hours later and the Assistant Director finally comes in and asks the union and non-union Jews to stand in a line.

He walks around, examines all of us and out of 20 of us standing there, he only picks two and says the rest of us are wrapped! I thought great, not a bad day after all. Unless of course they give a SAG waiver for the two Jews that were asked to stay behind. That never happened of course.

Oy vey , Jew for a Day. Though I don't think that I would want to become a orthodox Jew. It's too much work!

CA :(

Wallmart/Coca Cola Commercial in a Loft

2008-10-21T09:17:00.001-07:00

(Originally from September 16 and 17, 2008)

I was booked on a WallMart/Coca Cola commercial for two days. The holding area was downtown area by Chambers Street. We got to the holding area for our call time at noon and shortly after we had this terrific spread of food being laid out for lunch.

I love it when they, the casting people tell us to eat Lunch before we get to set.

I of course never listen to the casting directions and came to set famished. Once you have dealt with the casting information, you know it’s all about “trickery” and lies and you have to do what is best for you to make your own judgment call. Most of the time they have NO clue what is really going. Luckily I did as shortly after we signed in and got our paper work, we sat around for about an hour then lunch got served.

The first day they barely used us and we spent most of the day hanging out in a park for over 5 hours. I guess it wasn’t bad hanging out in the park and watching “Thomas Adonis” here posing with "Libido Linda" strut his stuff. The guy many be a complete moron, though he is a stud!

When you are bored, you definitely need something to amuse you. It was boring though much better than to be held hostage on set which was indoors in this loft with no working AC units. We escaped the "sweat fest" of the loft on day one, though we sure made up for it the next day.

Our call time was much earlier the next day and we had lunch several hours later. After a very satisfying lunch, they hauled us up to this loft where we had to climb 5 long sets of stairs to get to the top floor.

Guess that was good planning on their part to feed us then get us to burn all those calories by making us walk up all those flights of stairs. The loft was decorated with white Christmas lights and ornaments. Yes, you guessed it, this commercial is to be released for the Christmas season. It's actually a commercial which will be viewed across the nation at movie theaters everywhere during the preview ads and trailers we get bombarded with prior to the feature presentation.

I'm sure you won't be seeing me in this commercial. Being on this commercial gave the term "back to one" an entire new meaning. Normally they shoot the same scene, a hundred times over and then "check the gate, then move on. Not in this case at all. It was the exact same scene for 14 hours! I'm not kidding.

The scene as I mentioned is taking place in this loft where this young kid about 19 years old starts singing about how happy he is it's Christmas time, grabs a Wall mart bag filled with Coca cola, and starts passing around coke bottles to his "Step family" and his "Cool" Step Mother, singing and spreading Christmas cheer as he skips along the entire loft to the end until he abruptly comes to a halt when he sees his ex-girlfriend is at the party with a new guy! How clever.

That stupid song he sang over and over again. Well actually he "lip-synced" it as he skipped along. Though as the sweaty night prevailed and we were about to collapse, the director turned up the volume of the song so that everyone would get into the mood whether they liked it or not.

It was getting so bad in that loft that the icing on the cupcakes as props on the table was melting. Even the cheese couldn't take it anymore as it was seriously melting and becoming slimy. I think this was the cheese they brought up from Krafty when it was still edible.

As for everyone else it was getting so hot that when we made an attempt to take off our jackets in between takes, it was impossible as our jackets and sweaters became glued to our skin, literally. Finally after a million takes of this "party scene", we ready to collapse and barely filtered down the flights of stairs back to holding to sign out.

I was never SO happy in all my life to get on the subway knowing that it would be freezing cold with the AC pumping! So I survived that though I couldn't sleep all night as I was having nightmares of that stupid song. Though the downside, I suppose is that I won't be seeing any Christmas movies at the theater. or at least come extra late to avoid seeing this and the sweaty memories of it!

CA :( Sigh!

Sprint Commercial at Grand Central Station

2008-10-21T09:14:00.001-07:00

(originally from August 18, 2008)

Well it’s about time I got booked on something from the fabulous "British Booker", Jane Blodwell since I signed on to her agency over a month ago. I got my information for this Sprint commercial and I was told that this would be a short shoot and would wrap no later than noon. Well surprise surprise that we ended after 3pm!

Our holding area was a camper parked outside a block away from Grand Central, so you suspect it not to be a long shoot. There were only a handful of extras on this shoot including my friend Kathy from Seacliff, Long Island, and Stewart.

The location to shoot was at Grand Central Station which you know is and always will be a mess to work there in terms of high traffic commuters. Shooting anything at Grand Central attracts spectators and curious people that snoop around to see what is shooting and what celebrity is involved.

Well when people found out that Julia Roberts wasn’t there and the only star was the CEO of Sprint, people slowly moved along. The fact being that the CEO of Sprint, who is not only the spokesperson, but also the star of this commercial, was a joke. It was also not in our favor of getting released by noon. This commercial experience was a lesson learned why actors are hired to do commercials. The CEO kept messing up his lines and many of us believed that he got the script in a late e-mail the night before.

It got so bad to the point that both of the PA’s had to write down the script in BIG letters with magic marker on big cards for him to read as he walked and tried to pitch key words and phrases on his own company.

During all this all we had to do was walk back and forth as commuters around him. This may sound easy enough though we had one crazy old man with a horn in a powered wheel chair attempting to mow some of us down and making vile attempts at slapping young girls butts. Pervert in a wheelchair basically.

We were eventually done by 3pm where at that point we were making $5 dollars an hour for the rate we were promised and the commission Jane. Though isn’t it worth it?? I ask you?

CA ;(

THiS is FIOS. This IS BIG!

2008-08-14T18:29:00.000-07:00

(Originally from August 7, 2008)

The biggest highlight or career thrill that I have had lately had to have been working on this Verizon Fios promo. This wasn't the usual Verizon commercial where we sit around for 6 hours doing nothing and then they bring us to set. "Spock! What -is -this -FIOS??"

This was a promo and we were hired by a marketing company called "Two-dots" in California. The work was distributed thorough Barbra McNamara casting. As this was not a typical Verizon commercial, we had to do more paper work than usual. Drag! We had to join this agency and fill out "profile" forms on-line.

If that wasn't bad enough for computer illiterates, (insert computers for dummies) we had to print out and fax out W-9's (independent Contractor forms) out to California! Since I never fax anything, I kind of don't have a fax machine at home. I never fax anything these days. I felt like I needed an administrative assistant!

We started at 9am on Thursday morning. There were over 300 people lining up to find their name on their list and get situated. After I signed in as many of us do, we gravitate towards the side of the room where they had a breakfast of consisting mini-bagels, mini muffins, and a big urn of coffee on the side. It was decent food, though the portions were small. I guess they don’t want too many “fatties” to represent their product!

After we feasted, we were then divided into groups with color coded wrist bands. The “Orange group” was commissioned to wear the jumpsuits. I was assigned to the “Blue Team” and got the long sleeves cotton shirt which was great to wear in 90 degree day with humidity. I was ready willing and able to SWEAT!

The best "outfit" had to have been the humongous Remote control with all these buttons on it.

In fact that remote should have been the winning prize for females who performed their duties the best. Who needs a Man when you got the remote? So many of us began fondling and stroking this beast of a remote. It was VERY fulfilling.

I tell you that behemoth remote was my motivator. YES! OHH YES!!!
(Insert a few orgasms here) !!!

Once we got into our groups, we were quickly delegated throughout the city to various locations to distribute these fliers which advertised the promotion. You would think it is easy to hand out fliers though it gets exceedingly difficult with humidity and restless people (especially around Wall Street) dodging you to avoid getting the flier.

Of course you get your overly ambitious people who want to hand out these fliers to everyone passing by and literally make you look bad for still having your first stack of fliers and they just went through 4 packs. Some people were just obnoxious placing these fliers on people’s tables that were sitting down and really couldn’t care less for any kind of flier as I’m sure they get fliers shoved in their face on a daily basis.

Some guys were being a smart ass and put a stack of fliers in the postman's bag. Others offered the fliers to anyone including a homeless strolling by with their cart.

Though nobody could hand out fliers as fast and aggressively as the one and only "FLYERMAN".

This guy is such a phenomenon and actually made an independent movie on handing out fliers. He is from Toronto and his real name is Mark Vistorino. I knew this guy when I was really young before I left Toronto to come to New York. I got my very first headshots done by him. Also one of my first sexual experiences. I also recall that he is someone who was SO out there, and eccentric, VERY interesting, and VERY hard to EVER forget. He was also the most self-destructive and mis-understood soul I ever came across. Though his relentless passion to become famous is perhaps something in my early influence that pushed me to come to New York in the first place to follow my dreams, which is why I am mentioning this at all. His energy and enthusiasm to hand out fliers was truly a sight. To think he made a successful career at handing out fliers. Guess anythings possible. Good for him. check out more on him go to:http://www.flyerman.com/pk2.html

...Back to Fios.... After about an hour of distributing the fliers, we get called back to our "command station" which was the holding area in Union Square area. We had lunch, which was a box lunch of sandwiches and wraps. Not a bad lunch considering how cheap Verizon commercials are these days for non-union.

Once lunch was done, all 300 of us were commissioned to go to the heart of Union Square to demonstrate the Fios product. The demonstration was a success as we pretty much took over Union Square.

The way they had it set up was that they had two people hold up this wooden frame with a hole in the middle to represent a TV Flat screen. So we were the background to represent the change of channels. There was this BIG guy (not as big as the remote) on the side pressing the buttons to indicate channel changes.

For instance if the guy pressed a button for Football we would start cheering, if they pressed another button for movies, we put our hands on our faces to do the "home alone" look. Basically we were the TV and we were HDNY, with REAL digital effects! It was kind of cool. I tell you he should have changed the channel to the “O” channel for “Orgasm” b/c every time I was looking at that remote, I was feeling great! Again, who needs the Man, when you got the remote!

Our demonstration was interesting and I guess you could not have missed it being a passerby with all the people in one group doing Karate Chops simultaneously. However there was another demonstration just behind us which resulted in an NYPD arrest of this black guy trying to steal this salt and pepper shakers designed for drug use.

The rest of the day was a total wash-up, at least for the blue team. I was then sent to Bryant Park with my group. There was nothing to do or no point of handing out fliers there as there was a huge line wrapped around Bryant Park with kids and their families stationed and camping out for the Jonas Brothers Concert overnight for the next day.

I have to tell you this is the first time that I have even heard of the "Jonas Brothers". Yet here were kids, ranging from age 8-14, all girls, with their parents waiting for this big event. I guess these "Jonas brothers" are similar to the group Menudo back in the days!

Since we had a cool group leader, we were told just to make ourselves scarce and be back by 7pm. So a couple of friends of mine went to this hair salon on 5th avenue. It was one of these hair salons where they really treat you like a princess and pamper you. We sat down and were offered drinks and used the internet. After all we needed a break. That remote can really wear you out.

Once we got our fill of the salon, it was time to move on to our next venture which was doing Yoga stretches on the lawn of Bryant Park. Yes, what better way to end an over-exerting day then to do a couple of Yoga stretches for the road.

As the day was winding down, we headed back to our command center at Union square and signed out. Now the fascination of the BIG remote was just merely a memory, a dream.

Sigh :(

On the set of Lipstick Jungle

2008-08-09T13:17:00.000-07:00

(originally from August 1, 2008)

I got a call from out of the blue from Grant Wilfley Casting to work on NBC’s “Lipstick Jungle” starring Brooke Shields. Wow she came a long way. The last time I heard of her was when she was on the Oprah show discussing her post-partem depression and how Tom Cruise is just a "Scientologist jerk" for jumping on Oprahs couches !

This show was in hiatus since last year from the writers’ strike. Here is the blurb on Wikipedia : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lipstick_Jungle_(TV_series) In my opinion this is just another “Sex in the City”!

The scene that I was hired to do was for a formal for a "faux" fundraiser event for Autism. Since this was to be a high society “who’s who “type of gala, we had to dress for the part. Upon being booked I was informed that I would need to bring a gown. I told casting that I had a dress, even though they only requested pastel color, no black and white gown which is the one I have.

So I went to the local Thrift store here in Queens. Since I gained some weight I was afraid that I would not find a dress that would fit me well. By sheer luck and chance I found a dress that was not only the right color, though it was the right size!!! I was SO happy; I rushed home and got myself ready for the long night ahead.

On the call in to get the information it says to get there “hair and make-up ready!” I was like” I don’t think so!!!!!!!” Are you kidding, they want you to get to set, which is located 4 blocks from Crack-infested/ghetto East Harlem and wear a gown. Not only that, but the day was really humid and just to roam around the city in rush hour with a formal dress on is unbelievable!

I found out later that the SAG got a message to come in street clothes and change when they got to holding. It really IS upsetting how you get treated like garbage being non-union. What happened next really made me angry and proved how being in the union gives you rights. Non-union you have NO rights at all!

I barely got to set and was about 10 minutes late. The reason was b/c there was a stalled train at 59th Street Lexington avenue lines. The only way to get to E.103rd stop is via the 6 train. A few other people came after me, making them about 20 minutes late. I got to the check in line and was safe.

A few people, actually 20 people who also took the same route as I did, ended up with the same delay and ended up coming a few minutes later. They got to the check in line and were ALL dismissed! The P.A. said that they (Grant Wilfley) overbooked. What a crock of shit!!!!

So you can imagine how pissed off these people were. I knew about 4 of the people being sent home. If that happened to me I would raise bloody hell! For one thing, they were only 20 minutes late, not an hour! Of course all the people sent home were non-Sag. How convenient was that to make the SAG’s call in time for 5:30pm, an hour before it really gets crazy on the trains, and have non-SAG sign in, hair and makeup ready! I really can’t wait to become SAG to stop being treated like this.

I had to get myself ready and put on the dress that I just bought hours ago. I actually got a lot of compliments about the dress which made me feel good. After getting dressed, we all had to go through this endless line for hair and makeup. It took long, though once you got into the chair; it made you feel special having your makeup and hair done by a professional.

My makeup person was outstanding and the hair person was magnificent! My hair person was this gay black man from Nashville and he didn’t just style my hair, he sculpted it. In fact he was a sculptor and he managed to make my drab hair look like a million bucks!

Finally got to set and they had this gorgeous set for this high society fundraiser scene. Everyone was divinely dressed and everything was perfect. There were beautiful arrangements of flowers and shrubbery in an outdoor park setting. They even had an elaborate water fountain in the middle to tie in as the centerpiece of this elegant party. To add to the atmosphere there were Clowns, Musicians and stilt walkers. It truly was an event and this is what a party out in the Hamptons must be like.

The night ended up being really long and after wearing those dresses and shoes for hours standing up, your feet really start to hurt. It was so bad that when we finally got a break, we took our shoes off and ran out of central park through the dirty streets, around the corner back to holding in bare feet! You get to a point you really don’t care anymore.

It gets really difficult to stay in character just to stand around for hours doing nothing. When they did finally come around to tape you, they did the same scene over and over again. “Cut, back to one!” Re-set! I got to the point as did a few other ladies where we didn’t want to volunteer to be in the scene and sat down on the bench. One elderly Woman was not as lucky as she was standing by a little cocktail table and ended up fainting, not once but twice!

The only thing that saved her from falling and hitting her head on the concrete was this man who was her partner in the scene and managed to catch her in time. Within seconds, the on-set medic came up to her to assist. Shortly after the Police were on set and the EMS came and took her away on a stretcher. All while this is going on, the director is oblivious to this and continues shooting a scene.

We found out later that the Woman was okay and was just tired and dehydrated. One they gave her some food and water she revived. After the Sag rep came on set, things changed rapidly and they began giving out water out by the case to everyone to avoid another person fainting or getting sick.

It’s amazing how they wait until something happens before they will take the initiative to prevent something like this happening in the first place. It’s amazing how hungry they are to get the shot done that they will “Starve” everyone just to get it to perfection!

This show may make it, as it premieres this fall. However, in my experience over kill always ends up in disaster. They want perfection and the most elaborate sets and scenes and will end killing someone one day.

Amazing!

CA ;)