Cultural Experiences

Saw a documentary called "Girl 27" on Friday about the sordid cover-up of a sexual assault at MGM during the 30s. The filmmaker was in attendance for a "Q & A" afterwards, which is always a nice bonus.

On Saturday night I had drinks at a French restaurant with a guy from New Orleans who moved to L.A. in the aftermath of Katrina. Afterwards we went to a party in the Hollywood Hills that was similar to the other one I went to up there-- dreadlocks, hula hoops, and belly dancers. The house was directly beneath the Hollywood sign.

The New Orleans guy seems to have fortuitously stumbled into lucrative work in commercial production. He insisted it was easy to find such work and that I just hadn't "met the right people yet." After months of passing around my resume and "making connections," I'm much less optimistic. I'm pretty certain, in fact, that I'm going to be back behind a reference desk in about two months. I predict that my life here is going to be almost identical to my life in Austin-- working as a librarian again, going to the gym most days of the week, dating endlessly, and maintaining a patchwork of interesting friends around the city.

This morning I had coffee with a psychotherapist. He, of course, is working on several screenplays. We discussed the midlife crisis.

Screenplays in the Closet, Part II

So I have two new friends with screenplays in the closet. One now works in the business side of healthcare and has given up on the TV scripts he was writing and sending out, but the other is still working on his, and he wants me to help him edit one that he is about to send out. Ironically he also mentioned that he was friends with a former personal assistant to Alicia Silverstone. When I first arrived in L.A., someone told me she needed an assistant, and I sent off a letter, but I never heard back. That's been par for the course with the P.A. gigs. I never heard back about the Garry Shandling possibility either.

I've never worked on a screenplay, so I guess I'll see if I am able to be of any help.

Screenplays in the Closet

So far I've met three people who moved to L.A. to become screenwriters. One (a lawyer) gave up completely after his first year in L.A., the other (a teacher) has a closetful of screenplays that he still hopes to sell after he gets a book published, and the third is still plugging away, finishing up a screenplay while he works in the entertainment industry.

So it's true, lots of screenplays in the closet here.

In other aspirant news, I ran into my aspiring actress friend J., the Brit, on the street the other day. She was eating outside at Toast. After receiving the two parking tickets, she was involved in a car accident that totalled the used car she had just bought. Poor thing! Getting in a car accident here is my biggest fear...