Amoureux - album release

Almost forgot. Our first full length album: "Return to Love" (this one has vocals too) looks to keep its release date on 2.10.07. Technically, you probably could call this one the second one.

Meeting Garry Marshall

I wanted to get away from all the heaviness my blog has been containing lately and share this delightful and lighthearted story about meeting Garry Marshall. You may remember him as director of Pretty Woman, Laverne & Shirley, Happy Days, etc. I'd been dying to meet Mr. G. since, gosh, I was a kid and hooked on his shows. As you can tell from my other posts, I was a TV/movie junkie. Hey, how better to understand what works--watching the masters of the craft is how.

First I need to say that he's just a sweet heart. Here's my tale....

We bought tickets and saw an incredible performance. After the play everyone met in the lobby. There were so many news reviewers and such, at the time I didn't recognize any of them, but now having been exposed to this crowd I learned that they were really important and could make or break this production.

Anyhow, I saw out of the corner of my eye a gray haired gentleman. I asked my hubby, is that Mr. G? Sure enough it was. We introduced ourselves and he was so thrilled to see a young boy, our son at the play. We spoke, but only for a brief moment, but you can tell this man is integral.

It turned out that we were able to submit our script: "Billion Dollar Bride" to him to read. We didn't have a writing agent at the time so we went it alone through our production company. He's not able to do it, but hey, who knows what can happen?

It's just too funny because 2 years ago when we wrote the script we had Mr. G. in mind to direct. We were still in Vegas at the time and didn't know how we'd get this script to him. One of his past co-producers from Pretty Woman told us we wouldn't get within 10 yards of Mr. G.--really? This was totally coincidental, or was it?

I don't know, but the way things have been orchestrated in our lives, nothing seems coincidental to me anymore. There is a master plan here, and I just know we're on the brink of something really great. Call it kismet or faith or something. But all the extreme bad that has happened to us from my breast cancer (and a lot of other extreme crap) has to at some point be balanced out by extreme good. Maybe we got all the crappy stuff out of the way?? Let's hope.

While our success (we've had some success with our Emmy noms for our doc., but I'm talkin' about SUCCESS being able to get all our projects funded) has always been only slightly out of our grasp, just missing by a frustrating uuuuggghh--this succession of near misses is a sign of what's yet to come, good things.

Anyway, we adore you Mr. G. and I still want to be under your wing as an actress someday. Wait for me.

Shirt Censorship

Just speaking from the point of view as an artist, I thought about censorship, I'm for freedom of expression but never, will I ever impose that on someone else. Yes, the best of both worlds. This is a very hot topic and can get the best of any side of the pancake, but are there just 2 sides to this? Eventhough a pancake has 2 sides, perhaps there is another ingredient to throw into the mix-ridiculousness.

Traditionally...
On one side we have the freedom of expression, a side that says if you don't like, don't look/listen, monitor your kids, etc.

The other side says moral responsibility, be careful of what you put out there knowing it influences.

Okay, cool I follow this.

(But how about this senario)

The only reason I bring this up is because recently I had been asked to censor myself. Why? I couldn't figure this out for the life of me. I had not taken a political stand with my mouth, I had not done anything that would violate the religious, so what could possibly be the problem? It was the clothing I was wearing--WHAT?!!

At a cocktail party, someone had observed that my clothing was not to their liking and was offended. I wasn't showing any cleavage (lord knows I do try though-lol), I wasn't wearing anything that had anything emblazoned across my chest that would make me a walking human billboard supporting one side of an issue, it wasn't made of fur so I was baffled. It turns out that the manufacturer of a shirt (a nice blouse too) that I was wearing was made from a manufacturer that they didn't approve of for political reasons I won't go into. WOAH! I was told that I was making a statement in support of this particular manufacturer by wearing this blouse and I should censor myself. Huh? This is where I say, enough already.

In order to make a statement (which I wasn't) wouldn't I have to know about the manufacturer in the first place? Hell, I don't even look at the labels. If it fits and I can afford it, I want it, I buy it. Goodness, now in the PC world I have to be judged by what I wear? My life is filled with so much trial and struggle as it is, how the hell am I going to be able to check out every manufacturer's history before I buy something. Lay off people-enough already-get a life and stop invading mine and others.

So I guess before I go to another Hollywood party, I should call each guest and ask them if what I'll be wearing is okay. Yeah, right. I guess in true artist form I should've just said: freedom of expression, if you don't like it, don't look.

I didn't want to get involved in this polictical non-sense, but it seems that it's unavoidable in this industry. Ya know guys, I just want to act, entertain and build true relationships. There's no hidden meaning, no hidden agenda, no political point I want to make--but don't push me.

Self Reflection:
When all things around us are crazy, can we maintain a steadfast foundation?

We Must Never Forget - 911

I never intended this blog to be political in any way, lord knows we need more things in life that point out our common ground than war over our differences. This blog still won't become anything political, nor will anyone really ever know where I stand, especially should I be given the chance to have a public platform that can go along with an acting career. I'm an artist - period. I'm not going to use it to sway people's beliefs one way or another. There's a huge responsibility that goes along with being in the public's eye.

But--with this upcoming rememberance of 911 I do want to remember those who lost their lives. The people who did this to other human beings never asked first: What political party do you support? They never asked what religion or what country they were from. They did not try to rationalize or consider anything. It could have been any one of us that lost our lives that day. My heart is still aching over these events and I just hope those who were directly effected can somehow heal in time. The only connection I have directly is that my family lives where I was born and raised in Jersey and NYC. My house was only 13 miles away from ground zero. My father and his wife and my brother knew Jeremy who was on United 93. I didn't know that they knew him until recently this past weekend when we talked about the upcoming memorial day. It made my heart all the more sad. Here's my story of how my day went on that...strangely enough it was a beautiful, sunny day that day....

I still remember my husband waking me up in my son's bedroom. I was very sick the previous night and fell asleep on a mattress on his floor.

He gently shook me early in the morning and turned on our son's tv. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Then in real time, we saw the 2nd plane hit the WTC. I knew this wasn't an accident, much like the rest of the world - the dawning resounded with great trepidation then electrifying panic. My father, his wife, my brother...they lived across the Hudson in North Jersey only minutes away. This is where I grew up. My father was a carpenter and often worked in NYC. He was there only a week ago. His wife worked for an insurance co. and she was in NYC and flew often.

(My other brother on the West Coast was to be wed only days after this event and I feared my dad's wife was on a plane to CA, getting to the West Coast early because of work scheduling her to be in AZ)

I scrambled to the phone and called back East. Nothing-no ringing - no busy signal - nothing. I was able to get on line and frantically searched for information about their intended schedules before the wedding - I found an email that stated she was going to be on a flight but it didn't say when. I couldn't get through to my brother to see if he knew.

I kept my son home from school that day, this was no time to be separated.

We prayed, cried, and searched for answers.

I called my aunt and we talked and calmed one another. Her husband, my uncle had family there: sisters. One lived in Manhattan. Turns out that she saw most of it - even the plane hitting. I can't imagine what that was like, it was hard enough to see it on tv. My mother's boyfriend's family lived in Brooklyn and they worked all over NYC. I just hoped everyone was ok. No one could be reached.

After many, many eternal hours, word came back to us. My dad's wife was able to email me and tell me that they were all ok. My dad was home, she had been stuck in Newark (it was completely locked down and she couldn't get out til late that night) and my brother was with friends. I still have that email.

Somehow, everyone made it home safely, but changed forever. Do you remember where you were that day and what happened? I'm sure everyone does. My son vividly remembers. I can remember this: we all went to the grocery store later that evening and not one person honked their horns (keep in mind we lived in Vegas and Vegas is not known for polite drivers-you're lucky if someone doesn't tap your bumper trying to get you to move up so they can make a right turn). Not one profane word escaped a person's lips, not one rude comment about how long the grocery line was. Long faces worn in humility....humility...humility.

Self Reflection
With that said, I ask: "Are we living our lives to our fullest potential?" "Are we giving things that really matter the proper priority?"

Real Reel

Been away on a much needed vacation from life. I didn't go anywhere, I've been home all this time, I just needed to re-assess (that word doesn't look right-lol) what I'm doing in this world. I've come to the conclusion that I still know what I want to do - just need a break in doing it. I already know that I have the dedication (how else could I have lasted this long?) I have the passion (since I was 4) I have the talent (I've been told). Gosh, the stars just need to line up at the right time for me.

But...on the producer side (my other hat) things are promising. A few pitches on the table at the cable networks...

Our album for Amoureux is just about finished. My cool lover and I still are shooting for a release. It's symbolic for us being our wedding aniversary and the title: "Return to Love", well that's exactly what our relationship has done.

The Reel
It's uploading today. Hopefully, I did it correctly. Yep, I'm also a webdesigner. A gal's gotta make a living and sometimes I've had to wear many, many hats. I'm going to get back to this issue on my next entry. In the process of having to survive, I've managed to learn how to do a lot of different things, grateful that I love to learn but man----I'm tired.

Today's
Self Reflection:
When things get really, really bad (I mean ready to check-out bad), what is it that we individually run to to help us cope? What is our drug of choice?
Mine is unconditional love.