I was
sitting in the back of Disneyland California Adventure, on a chilly fall evening in October finishing up my dinner when I
called the hotlines. Jeff Olan was looking for stand-ins for “The Bachelor” so I called to submit my photo.
He called me back the next day to say I booked it. I drove to set and stepping on the lot, everything contorted into
deja vu as I entered the Andrita Studios. Behind some picturesque green hills on a side street in Glendale, I stepped
into a memory. Previously owned by Full Moon Entertainment, I had practically lived here back in 1996, starring in over
a handful of their movies. How time had changed. Where once I remember being young, laughing with my co-stars,
going over lines while sharing a cigarette, now I stood in the parking lot waiting in line for my backstage crew pass. Everyone
had to sign a waiver saying we would keep all secrets revealed. I had never worked on a reality TV show, but I guess
this is the norm. Entering set, we were shooting “Women Tell All” with all the girls who had been thrown
off the show, coming back for a recap. Since the questions and answers were off the cuff, all the stand-ins were required
to improv responses during the rehearsal. None of us had seen the show, so we just improvised stuff we thought they
would say. Some of the girls were rather creative and we were all left laughing. I have to say it was the best
stand-in experience I ever had. After the rehearsals, the studio audience was brought in and we were asked to stay and
be part of the audience while still working under our stand-in rate. It was amusing to see what the women actually said
compared to what we had been coming up with for them in rehearsal. Sometimes eerily it seemed they said it exactly as
we had! “The Writer’s are on strike!” Someone announced during our five-minute break.
Everyone flew into a panic recalling the last time this happened. Would everything just come to a halt? Not that
Friday, but by Monday things were definitely in crisis. All over the news we heard that L.A. was targeted to loose millions
of dollars a day and the mayor was now involved. The casting hotlines had all but died. The picketing had started.
How long was this going to last?
Before this announcement things had been going rather well for me, picking up again if you will. I
started 2007 like I ended ‘06, still in search of the elusive regular job to bring in some extra money.
But no matter where I interviewed I was always one step behind the person they hired. Not enough
recent experience in the job market and please do not mention the entertainment industry.
“Aren’t you a little
too creative for such an unrewarding office job?”
“No,” I said with a straight face, “I can do boring,
monotonous work, I need the money.” Fell on deaf ears.
Spring came and I had to pay my SAG and AFTRA dues and figured
I might as well try again to line up some background job that did not interfere with my family’s erratic schedule.
So I renewed our Disneyland passports and spent a lot of time playing in the Magic Kingdom. I can
call the casting hotlines from anywhere right? I went in to update my photos at Central Casting and Jeff
Olan Casting. They were the only two agencies that had gotten me work. In May I called
Central’s Hotline and booked “Wizards of Waverly Place”, my first job of the year and first time on a Disney
show! I was booked to play a mom watching little league baseball. Translation, sit in
the bleachers all day. But it was not all bad. The location was amazing.
Nestled off the 5 freeway at Stadium Way, was Elysian Park, a hilltop baseball/picnic/play area overlooking Dodger
stadium and all of the surrounding L.A. area. Wow. I have returned a number of times
to take Zyla to the playground there and enjoy that awesome view. A new discovery for a native southern
Cally girl I was impressed! When I first got back to LA, I was constantly at the studios but this year
became all about going on location!
Next
I found myself in Hawthorn at the Robert F. Kennedy Medical Center. I walked up to the wrong production;
not realizing more than one studio was shooting at this location. They put me in the right direction.
It appeared the hospital may have had a fire or something, from the damage I observed, and it was no longer functioning
as a hospital, only being used by the entertainment industry. I found the “Heartland” set and
checked in to play an office worker and hipster at a coffee bar. Our holding was in this beautiful hidden
garden in the center of the hospital, where I am sure many doctors and nurses came for a time out breath of fresh air.
There were only a handful of us for the office worker call and they ended up using none of us since the leads had a
kissing scene moment and felt the background would be distracting? I am not to sure of what the official
reason was, but whatever, I enjoyed the garden and talking with my fellow actors. In the evening we were
scheduled to shoot the coffee bar scene and a lot more BG’s showed up. We changed our clothes, but
then they said it was too late to shoot that scene and they would reschedule it for the next day and wanted to know who could
come back. Unfortunately I could not since it was not going to work out with my family schedule.
But I had fun, getting paid for 12 hours to chat with new friends and have a few laughs!
Summer snuck up on me and my time to work quickly
dwindled to nothing as Zyla exited kindergarten for her summer break. Fortunately a couple of my Mystique
movies I starred in were being aired in the foreign and pay per view markets and I received a nice residual check.
We took a vacation to visit Edward’s family in Ohio, when I received a call to work on “Side Order of Life”.
I was going to be back in time and booked it, but then had to cancel it the following day. Unfortunately
the unthinkable happened and we were hit with two deaths in the family. Within one week of each other Edward’s
grandparents both died. Two very special souls, who were married 65 years, left behind such a legacy.
It was hard on everyone, especially when it came time to return to the realities of life.
I spent the rest of the summer taking Zyla back
and forth between swimming lessons and ballet classes. Edward was promoted to the Internet department and
given no schedule, meaning they wanted him there 24/7. It was really hard to figure out what days I could
work when he did not have a schedule, so I would try to get jobs and whatever day it landed on he would then try to take off.
I drove Zyla to her first day of First Grade, and then called up the hotlines. I was surprised when
I heard the casting director on the hotline say he needed girls with western gear for the TV show “Las Vegas”.
Usually all they ask for are strippers. I got the booking for the next day and to celebrate Zyla
and I headed down to Disneyland. We entered Disneyland California Adventure first and headed straight to
The Hollywood Tower Hotel, her favorite ride. After a run through Brother Bear land, I finally got her
to stop and eat. With magic on all sides, I called the hotlines again even though I had a job for the next
day. Jeff Olan was looking for ‘hot blondes’ so I called to have my picture submitted for the
new Forrest Whittaker movie “Powder Blue”.
The next morning I woke up at like 4am since I had to drive out to Ventura County for the “Las
Vegas” gig. The moon looked odd, like clouds were covering half of it or something weird, but I didn’t
really see a cloud in the sky. I kept thinking about last night and how full and beautiful the moon had
been. How could it be half now a few hours later? As I drove down the 101 freeway to
set, the moon slowly showed more and more of itself. I found out when I arrived at the ranch that I had
seen the tail end of the Lunar Eclipse! On location in Thousand Oaks, but pretending we were in Wyoming,
I played an Auction Attendee. For western gear I dug deep in the closet to pull out the leather vest I
wore when I starred in “A Place Called Truth”. I was upset all day that I had no signal, thanks
T-Mobile. Everyone with Sprint had full bars. I was picked by the director to sit at
the check-in table for the auction and collect money for tickets in the scene. I met one of the girls from
“Ragdolls”, a sort of female version of “Jackass”. She ended up being super cool
and we hung out and talked a lot about everything.
Calling the hotlines became my life. I called in every half hour from 6am-7pm.
Sometimes calling 4or 5 times an hour when I thought new things might be posted. The casting directors
put up their requests at random times in the day. If it is for a job for the next day, they may fill the
call in as little as ten minutes. Or the message might stay on the line for weeks because they forgot to
take it off or they are doing picture submissions. You never know and thus are glued to the phone.
Some weeks it seemed like they are never looking for my type. Are you 18 to look younger?
Are you a professional rock climber? With your own gear? Do you own a Vespa?
Busty strippers, natural strippers 18-35 years old only ladies and this is network television so comfortable down to
pasties and g-string please. Some of the things casting directors say in these recorded messages make me
laugh! Who wants to play a dead girl? Who wants to play lesbian lovers?
Who wants to make out with their boyfriend or husband and the lead of our show? Your fella must
be SAG ladies!
My Disney magic paid off when
I received a call from Jeff Olan saying I had been picture picked to be an ‘Angel in Love’ aka hot blonde on ‘Powder
Blue’. I drove over Laurel Canyon as the sun was setting to spend the night at the Roosevelt Hotel.
This famous landmark on Hollywood Blvd was pretty much taken over by our crew from front lobby to bar to ballroom.
One of the girls I met said she had read the script and it was a truly depressing film. The scene
we were in actually was a comedic light moment in the movie. We were pretending to be at this party for
singles to meet each other. I loved hanging out in the grand ballroom, our holding, most of the evening
talking with the other actors. We had fun feeling like we owned the joint!
“Everybody Hates Chris” had an opening for a nurse
and I booked it. I had heard rumors about the show; of course everyone was upset that as a SAG show they
only paid AFTRA rates. Translation less money for SAG talent. Why this show gets this
incentive I have no idea. Back on a studio lot, this time Paramount, I ended up parking in the structure
on the other side of where I needed to be. So after hiking through the studio to Building 213, I went to
the third floor trying to find the second A.D. I was told by the office manager to go back outside and
find the check-in table by wardrobe. Unfortunately no one was there and it was a very small call since
the scene I was in had all principal actors and one background player, me. Eventually I convinced enough
people to get on walkies and I got checked in and shuttled off to wardrobe. My costume was quite convincing
and everywhere I went on the lot someone made a comment. Nurse I have a cut, Nurse I have a sprain, Hey
Nurse Ratchet can you mend my broken heart. When it came time to shoot my scene, Tichina Arnold introduced
herself and shook my hand. She plays Chris Rock’s mom. Everyone seemed really
cool on the show contradicting the rumors, but it wasn’t always this smooth. It seems since the merger
to CB, a lot of problem people were let go and the show was making marked improvements. The make- up artists
did not know how long the show would last since the kids seemed to be growing up so fast. I enjoyed playing
dress up and in under eight hours was on my way home.
Returning to the Fox lot brought lots of memories with it. Back in 1998 an executive
at Fox called me in to get me in the loop. They had seen my Red Shoe Diaries episode “Caged Bird”
that I starred in and wanted to help me find proper representation. A nightmare ensued with the management
they suggested and after giving four months of my life to be made over in their image, personally costing me thousands of
dollars, fantasizing that this was my big break, left me emotionally drained with nothing left when things did not mesh to
start over looking for new representation. Feeling cheated and defeated I took a three-year hiatus focusing
on my upcoming marriage and new family. Now here I was back after almost 10 years and looking at all the
change. The executive I had once known no longer worked there. I was booked to work
“Unhitched” which takes place in Boston. The casting director originally only wanted brunettes
but in a last minute effort to fill the call they accepted blondes and I called in. I enjoyed spending
the day on the New York City street backlot and remembered how I use to walk through this set every time I came to visit the
executive, whose offices were just beyond this stage. The huge parking lot I remembered was gone and replaced
with a tall office building. Parking had since become a nightmare at Fox; usually you have to be shuttled
onto the lot from a lot down the street. I was on a car call, so I parked in the Galaxy lot, which was
total insanity. There are just way too many cars and we were told to double park blocking others in.
When I asked someone who looked like a parking attendant if he worked here, he said no. I wasn’t
sure who to give my keys to and found out from another guy they were just messing with me. After checking
in at set, I returned to the parking lot with some other girls to pull our cars onto the studio lot and drive them to the
New York City street stage. Things more or less mellowed out after the morning drama. In
the evening we shot a club scene of everyone lined up to enter the club through an alley. It was chilly
and I was glad I was asked to drive my car by in the shot, where I stayed nice and warm in my slinky little blue party dress.
A casting came on the hotlines for 1950’s
hair lengths. It seemed every show wanted to do period pieces that week. If your hair
was above your shoulder they want you for 1920’s. Hair down your back must be 60’s.
Big hair for 1980’s, you get the picture. I called in to be submitted for a 1950’s flashback
scene on “Moonlight”. The scene was to take place at a private outdoor evening pool party and
keeping with the period, we had to go to a fitting at Warner Brothers Studios. Pulling out authentic dresses
that were over 50 years old, I was squeezed into a corset and a beautiful purple/blue ball gown. They asked
me if I could breathe. If I take shallow breathes no problem, but no marathons right! My
heels were one size to small and I said that would not work and prayed they could find my size by the shoot day.
Next Hair & Make-up wanted to see us and talk us through how to put in rollers and apply make-up 50’s style.
Lipstick seemed a big priority and we were told to make sure we bought and brought True Red or Cherries in the Snow
lip color. The casting director told us our hair might be trimmed if it was below our shoulders but no
longer than our bra strap. Unfortunately a lot of girls got much more than a trim, some loosing 4 or 5
inches of their hair in a miscommunication issue on what the true length for the period should be. The
information at the fitting was important because we were shooting on location in Chatsworth and had to come to set with curlers
in our hair and make-up ready. We were shooting at Frank Sinatra’s old mansion up on a hill, surrounded
by cliffs on all sides, with no worry of nosy neighbors. Originally we were told it would not be a night
shoot, but with our call time starting at 6pm, of course we ended up spending the night there. I did not
mind we had an amazingly gorgeous view of the entire San Fernando Valley all lit up, millions of stars twinkling, and a quarter
moon hanging in the sky. Stories of the property were told, or maybe rumors. Supposedly
Marilyn Monroe had gone swimming nude here on the last night of her life. Lucille Ball was said to have
bought the property from Frank and lived out the rest of her life there. Halley Barry shot her nude
pool scene for “Swordfish” here. It was a very private residence rising up out of Chatsworth,
which is primarily known for being the porn capital of the world. Some thought why would big stars have
a house out here, but back in the day, there would not have been the city of Chatsworth as it is now, just farm lands and
orchards, so it must have been like a private get away from the bustle of LA and I could see the allure. We
had a lot of holding time and I wandered around the property listening to the coyotes howl in the reservoir. The
security guard said that at one time the reservoir had been filled with water and it was like looking at a huge lake off the
back of the property. But at sometime an earthquake caused a split in the dam and all the water slowly
trickled out. It was never fixed and now the area looks like a deep bowl of desert wasteland, or at least
I think it does, it was very dark. There was a huge ball on a crane that gave light to the grounds for
the crew to work. The bats were going crazy dipping and diving in the trees. We were
finally called to set at like 3am and shot our scenes. I loved strolling along the pool, trying not to
fall in with my high heels that were one size too big. Wardrobe had not found my exact size but at least
they were not uncomfortable. When we returned to holding, a tent in the driveway, the generator had died
and we had no light or heat. Everyone used their cell phone lights to see. I pulled
out my Tinker Bell flashlight and projected her on the roof of the tent. In the dark, some guy asked what
the fairy was doing here. I yelled out I like her and so does my daughter.
He responded you look great for being a mom, to
which I replied thank you as the lights came back on. I am an exception to the rule; for the most part
a lot of girls my age doing these gigs do not have children or husbands for that matter. I am happy I have
such a supportive family, truly blessed by God. My favorite things to do after set is come home to their
loving embraces and share my adventures with them.
The next time I called into the hotlines a call was up for “Notes from the Underbellies”
looking for park people who looked L.A., but when I got the casting director on the phone he said he would rather put me in
the park scene on “Without A Trace” which takes place in New York. How a native Cally girl
ends up being booked as a New Yorker over her home town I will never know, I guess those two years in the Big Apple changed
me more than I know. I am not complaining, it was a great gig, in and out in under 5 hours, hanging out
in another beautiful park I had never been to, this time Hermon Park in Pasadena. The weather was chilly
so the winter weather wardrobe we had to wear was perfect.
On November 2nd, 2007 the Writer’s went on strike and who knew how long we would have jobs since
no negotiations were under way. I called in to be submitted for a 1970’s bathing beauty who would
make a shallow dive in the pool at a pool party for a new CBS mid-season pick up show called “Swingtown”.
I was picture picked along with 3 other girls but the director could not decide who should dive in and wanted to choose
the day of the shoot. Originally we were told whoever got picked would get $200 while the rest of us would
only get the SAG regular rate. I am not sure who negotiated to bump our rate up, but I have a feeling it
had something to do with the fact they changed the dress code from full piece bathing suits to, those skimpy teeny weeny yellow
polka dot bikinis. Well they all weren’t yellow but you get the point. So day
of, we show up and have to go through wardrobe. Ask anyone and they will tell you there is something not
right about that department on this set. I was stuck with a nightmare of a woman who handed me suit after
suit. The first bikini I tried on was cute, fit nice. I step out of the dressing area
and she proceeds to take the safety pins out of the sides of the bottoms. They were holding the suit together
and now it was draping off of me. I anxiously told her that it was all coming loose and I would not be
able to dive in a pool with it like this. She told me I could not wear it with all these pins sticking
out. As she finished taking all the pins out, I said it was much too loose and would fall off if I walked
let alone dive in a pool and she told me to shut my mouth and just model the suit and let the professionals do their job.
OK. This woman is in charge of dressing me and I do not want a nightmare day, so I continue to try
on suit after suit for her until she finally settles on one and I breath a sigh of relief to finally be released from her
presence. We go through hair and make-up and wonder when the director is going to call us in to choose
who would dive. The casting director said it would not be based on how we look in the bikini but in our
practice dive we would do for the director. Strangely only me and one other girl were asked to come meet
the director, instead of the original four. Josh Marston, the director of this episode ‘Double Exposure’
shook our hands and we talked by the pool about being comfortable and confident in doing a shallow dive. He
thanked us and walked away. We were thinking that’s it, when he turned around and asked to see our
suits. We flashed open our bathrobes we were wearing over the bikinis, he thanked us and that was it.
On the way back to holding the P.A. was radioed who had been chosen. Let me guess the girl five
years younger with size C cup that was on an Junior Olympic swim team, yep. Silently I thanked God because
the bikini I had ended up in was no where near the best one I had tried on and frankly I could care less to be totally featured
in it. Actually since I was runner up swimming diver girl, I was picked to be in the pool during the scene
so the whole suit was under water, perfect! The whole set was inside a sound stage out in Van Nuys at the
Calvert Studios. I was told the pool had been used in “90210” house pool party scenes.
The pool was kept heated and with the lights on so bright to imitate daytime it became rather warm if you weren’t
in a bikini. The crew needed the air conditioning, which was pumped through on breaks but unfortunately
aimed right above the pool so we ended up getting a little chilly. We couldn’t leave the pool without
towels because they didn’t want the cement wet around the pool area. At one point we were stuck in
the pool for a while as someone was sent searching for towels for us. The next time we were called into
set the wardrobe woman I mentioned before collected all our towels, hid them and disappeared. When we wanted
to exit it became an issue that no one could find her or our towels, but eventually it all got sorted out. The
show was new after all and things were bound to be running a little wacky. At one moment during the evening
Grant Show, who was one of the stars of this new show, recounted his tales of being on set in his “Melrose Place”
days. We were all asked to return the following week for a 3-day call to be in the house party scene.
Thankfully they smartened up and asked us to come in the day before the call for fittings.
I showed up a little early for
the fitting and my favorite wardrobe gal yelled at me to get out, I was too early and couldn’t hang out in there.
I had just stepped through the door to check in, I immediately stepped out and went to holding. She
ended up coming in there and sat near me eating her breakfast. At the appointed time I got up and walked
out and back to the wardrobe department, but did not go in. She came marching after me, watching to make
sure I did not go in but not speaking to me, just fiddling with some wardrobe hanging on a rack outside. Eventually
other girls showed up asking if this is where we were suppose to be. Yes, but watch out for that one, I
would say. There were 3 or 4 wardrobe women in charge and as luck would have it, I was stuck with my favorite
again to fit me in a sexy dress. The outfits she pulled off the hangers were hideous and when the other
wardrobe women saw, they scolded her judgment. She ran off somewhere and came back with a red gown, which
everyone loved. The 1st AD came through saying we had to wear bras, because this was CBS and
network television after all. Everyone was told to bring a white bra with them tomorrow. Next,
I was showed a box full of shoes and told to find some. The other girls were given options by their wardrobe
ladies, but that was not to be the case for me. After digging through the entire box and not finding one
shoe in my size, I found some beat up red pumps with no size on them which fit perfect but looked like they’d been through
hell. I put them on and asked if that was ok. Everything was approved and I got out
of there, thinking how odd that a background actor would be wearing red when everyone knows they usually leave those colors
for the principal actors. Apparently I was right, because when I showed up to set the next day, I was told
I had to go to wardrobe again to be fitted. It appears that one of the wardrobe women, can we guess who,
took costumes from the principals racks. So again I went but thank God it was one of the other wardrobe
costumers and she quickly helped me into a beautiful slinky halter top teal dress, detailed with silver and delicate pink
flowers, and a front layer of fabric that sort of fell away becoming a slit up the front of the dress showing off your legs
when you sat down. Will you be fine wearing it with no bra dear? What happened to this
is CBS network television? Of course, no problem I assured her and with a pair of sandals in my size, I
was all set and told to ask for some jewelry from the wardrobe girl over by hair and make-up, so I made my way back over there.
She gave me fishhook earrings and a gold belt that really made the dress. Then she asked me if I
would mind taking off my underwear.
“Excuse me?”
“You are wearing panty hose right?”
“Yes”
“Well your panty line is noticeable and
if you take off your underwear you could just wear your panty hose.”
“I am wearing thigh highs, and when I sit this dress splits
open, so I do not want to flash everyone.”
“How about if we give you a pair of our panty hose?”
“No, I don’t think so.”
Are they kidding me?
The ‘70’s had panty lines, who cares? And if they hadn’t changed my outfit from
the day before that worked fine with this underwear there wouldn’t be an issue. But as luck would
have it, no one saw my panty line that day because I was asked to be a stand-in for the rest of the day and had to wear color
cover shirts which came down past my butt. That’s show biz! I ended up being a
sort of utility stand-in for Brittany Robertson, Lana Parrilla, and Miriam Shor and hung out with the other regular stand-ins.
It was a great group and I was really enjoying and getting use to coming to “Swingtown” every day.
The next day I was still booked as a sexy swinger party guest, and had to come in curlers again, and this time a g-string
so no issues from wardrobe please, but after being put through hair, make-up and wardrobe was pulled to be a utility stand-in
again. This show was working long hours and I was happy for the work and the overtime and especially for
the food. I think even if the show were a nightmare, which it was not, I would show up for the catering
they had on this set. It was that good, Sean had trained in Paris and was a gourmet chief.
On my last day there, I was left to be a sexy swinger and hung out for hours in holding with a great bunch of girls,
laughing the day away. By the next week the show was shut down due to the strike. With
only three episodes in the can, it was unlikely this show would go anywhere if the strike continued. We
heard a rumor that if the strike lifted by January, things would go on as planned and the show would start airing on CBS,
otherwise Showtime was interested.
Thanksgiving seemed to come early this year and work was dwindling. I called in to be submitted
to be a stand-in for Meg Ryan on a new movie she was shooting in December.
My actor friends were going to the picket lines and joining in the
strike with the writers. The acting unions SAG and AFTRA sent out daily emails as to where to picket, but
encouraged all actors to keep any acting commitments and only join picket lines on our days off or lunch breaks.
Thankfully I hadn’t had to cross a picket line to get to any of my jobs, but had witnessed the picketers outside
NBC when I would drive past every day picking up Zyla from school. I figured if I did not line up any jobs
soon, I would go check out the picket lines myself and lend my support. During a birthday party for my
daughter’s friend, I met a Disney producer who said he was not afraid of the picketers and that they were friendly to
him. He said he worked in the animation department and his writers were under a special animation/writer
agreement which aloud them to continue to work through the strike unaffected. So there was a loophole,
leave it to Disney to cover all their bases. I wondered who else had loopholes and when this whole thing
was going to be over.
Lucky
for me the website www.thunderrunsportswear.com contacted me to do a photo shoot to model some of their t-shirts. Since they are based outside Cally,
they asked if Edward could be the photographer. We agreed. After receiving the shirts
and planning locations, other wardrobe accessories and shots, we headed out to Malibu early one morning on Ed’s day
off to shoot at Point Dume. Probably one of the most photographed pieces of beach, I remember back in the
day shooting with many photographers out here and it was so much fun to share this with Ed. The day could
not have been any more perfect. Even though it was the last week in November, the suns warm rays and clear
skies lifted my spirit. Tons of dolphins were migrating up the coast and we watched them dance out of the
water. Sea lions were barking, pelicans swooping down, it was just picture perfect and we had it all to
ourselves. We decided to take a few more shots outside a sea cave at El Matador about 3 miles north of
Point Dume, then headed home to Burbank. After a short break, we went to the Stough Canyon Nature Center
and hiked to the top for the sunset shots overlooking Burbank, the Valley, and Downtown L.A. in the distance.
Ed shot on 35 mm and our digital video camera, so when I got home that night I emailed some of the shots and then shipped
out the rest. The website was very happy with the electrifying shots! Ed is an awesome
photographer and we hope more gigs like this come our way.
During the same week Merkelbach Films based out of Australia emailed me regarding a cameo appearance
in their upcoming Zombie film. Again Ed was asked to be the videographer and we shot the scene late at
night on the last day of November. Ed played set coordinator while I got my hair and make-up camera ready.
We shot many takes at all different angles, close ups, medium shots, extreme close ups, cutaways. I
shipped out the raw footage. We were on a roll here! After receiving the footage the
director raved about my performance and put up a publicity spot on the web at this link http://www.horror-movies.ca/horror_10118.html.
December
trudged slowly as work on the hotlines became non-existent. My girlfriend who had been to the writer’s
strike considered auctioning her strike sign on ebay just because money was becoming tight. Negotiations
were underway, but supposedly nowhere near the agreement the writer’s wanted. I updated my profile
on the SAG website at iActor and found out from SAG that I cannot list an AKA and that if any producer, writer, director,
casting whoever calls up SAG asking for Jacqueline Lovell, they tell them I no longer exist in their database!
I couldn’t believe it; I mean SAG still sends me residual checks under that name! SAG told
me once I changed my stage/professional name to my legal married name; they dismissed the old name and hold no record of it.
So if anyone is looking for Jacqueline Lovell, yes I still exist and am available for work! Why
SAG didn’t mention this when I changed my professional name to my married name 3 years ago I will never know.
As luck or
God’s perfect timing would have it, Central Casting called me for an AFTRA stand-in gig for the Sheer Cover Infomercial.
At 5:30am I drove down to my hometown of Manhattan Beach. To avoid traffic I got down there early
and headed to the beach to listen to the waves pound the serf at six in the morning. Seems a lot of other
people had the same idea. I headed into the Raleigh Studios by 6:30am and grabbed some breakfast.
It was another super easy day sitting in rather than standing and hanging out with four other really cool girls.
As the year wound down to the
final hours and no end in site for the strike, the good folks at www.thunderrunsportswear.com came up with a great idea for me. Printing up signature t-shirts with my image on them, so now I have
some new merchandise for sale to tie me over until the strike lifts and I can get back to my acting gigs. So
help support your local starving artists and buy your official Jacqueline Lovell t-shirt today!
I hope everyone had a safe and fabulous Holiday
and keeps it Rockin’ in the New Year!
~Jacqueline Lovell~Nyahay
My Top 10 Favorite Reading Material of 2007
(when bored on set or otherwise)
- The Child of the Jungle by Sabine Kuegler
- Shattered Dreams by Irene
Spencer
- A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
- The Witch of Portobello
by Paulo Coelho
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows #7 by JK Rowling
- Dakota by Kathleen Norris
- Passing for Normal by Amy
S. Wilensky
- Girlbomb by Janice Erlbaum
- Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
- Jesus Land by Julia Scheeres
