Celeb Sightings #4 and #5!

First day at Simon West (more on that later) but my time spent on the Paramount lot has been chock full of celebrity sightings so far. I guess that shouldn't be suprising, I mean it's a movie studio. In Hollywood. Still, the Lancaster girl in me still does a double take when I see somebody famous, and so, I feel it is worth reporting in the blog. Passed Erik Christian Olson on my way to get lunch at the cafe. And while I was back at my desk eating said lunch, Mike White walked by my window. Also, my office is right next to Lorne Michael's. This town is awesome.

Internship Update!

Two interviews today, one with Current TV and one with the CSI writers room.


Current was up first at ten am, off of Highland on Lexington Ave. Got my first taste of real LA rush hour traffic (sooooo much fun) and had some problems finding the place (there is NO SIGN that says Current anywhere on the building. Literally. None.), but after that it was smooth sailing. The internship is with the Music Department, I'd be working primarily with the production team behind "Current Music" a new half-hour show they are debuting this fall. The show follows one artist per week as they give the audience a taste of their lives, and also features break-out segments of up and coming bands and artists. A few currently in the works are Mos Def and Ben Harper.

As an intern I'd be helping them with pre- and post-production, as well as doing administrative stuff, handling expense reports, and my personal fav, compiling "The List" every week. The List is a comprehensive list of all the bands performing in the area each week, along with artist info, openers etc. Combine this with Callie's cousin who can get free tickets, and this semester is shaping up to be very musical. And awesome. I was offered the internship on the spot, though I said I wanted to wait to hear back from CSI. The girl I interviewed with was great and used to be an intern herself, so it looks like there is great room for advancement!




After that, I headed over to Universal City, to interview with the CSI writers. It was cool to see what a writer's office suite looks like in big time TV and it was a nice laid-back atmosphere. The group of people who interviewed me were super nice and relaxed. They asked questions about the show and writing I had done. Unfortunately, they were looking for an intern who could commit to five days a week and with my other internship already locked down, that wasn't something I could do. On the bright side, they offered the position to my roommate who is most likely going to accept, so I can still tag along (hopefully).

All in all, good day. I'm glad I didn't have to choose between the two offers, and though I would have loved to be in a real writers room, it would have been hectic along with my other writing class, and my schedule will work much better with the Current position (which I am psyched about!). Another plus, the CSI head guy told to shoot him an email if I ever need a job. I think I made one of my first official industry "connections." Nice.

Eats in LA #3 and #4: Frozen Pho-gurt

Also yesterday was another LA experience, what we in the apartment like to call "Everything's Pho-K," the philosophy that all Vietnamese restaurants with "Pho" in the title are delicious. Ok, so maybe it's just Callie's philosophy. None the less, the four of us packed up and headed to downtown Burbank to get ourselves a little taste of Pho City. $7 gets you the "Noodle Soup Bowl" which is a bowl of broth and rice noodles bigger than your head (no exaggeration) which comes with your choice of meat, meat by-product or vegetarian meat subsitute. Callie got the chicken, and I went for meatball. It was good, the broth was flavor ful and the noddles were good too. The meatballs were pretty gristly (don't know what I was expecting with a Vietnamese place, but there you go) but I tried Callie's chicken as well and that was really good. The other roomies got more standard dishes: Shrimp with Broccoli and Lemongrass Chicken and they were both reported to be good, albeit a little spicy.


After dinner, we walked up to Yogurtiers, one in (literally) a million frozen yogurt places here in LA. This one is proclaimed to be the best (again, by Callie) because it has many different flavors at once, is all fat-free (well, the yogurt anyway), and is self-serve. I got peach and strawberry yogurt with Fruity Pebbles, white chocolate, and fresh strawberries and blueberries and it was DELICIOUS. Way to go California, you came up with a desert fad that is both healthy and creative. And also profitable, because they charge by weight and you can't tell how much you have until it's payin' time.

First Vietnamese food, check. First "noodle bowl", check. First LA fro-yo, check.

CHELSEA!

Been a while since I've updated, kind of getting into the swing of things here on the left coast. Yesterday was a lot of fun, the roomies and I went to a taping of Chelsea Lately, the late night entertainment talk show on E! We got there super early to make sure we actually got into the taping (you have to reserve tickets, but there are only so many seats in the studio), and were actually first in line! After a few hours of playing cards and eating our PB&J, we finally went through security, got our nifty little badges...
...and were seated in the audience. Despite the fact that the guest was a pre-taped package and the warm-up comic was in our face to laugh and applaud the whole time, the taping was a fun experience. The round table was good (Gary Valentine and the Sklar Bros, for fans of the show), the monologue and closing were funny, and we got to see Chuy!!! Also, Chelsea is nice enough to sign books during breaks and gave me this little souvenir for my BFF:

All in all, Chelsea Lately+Free Tickets+CHUY+signed book (-comic guy) = AWESOME!

Eats in LA #2

Today, the roommates (plus Nate) headed out to Callie's favorite food destination, Souplantation! Essentially an all-you-can-eat buffet with a health-concious West Coast twist, Souplantation is a soup, salad, baked potato, bread heaven where everything is fresh and the soups are from scratch. This month's theme was Mexico, so along with homemade cornbread and foccacia, I enjoyed Spicy Southwest Pasta Salad, Southwest Chipotle Foccacia, and my personal favorite, "Albondigas Locas" soup (translation: "Crazy Meatball"). With a twist of frozen yogurt for dessert, Souplantation is truly a delicious LA eatery.

Yes you will, Souplantation, yes you will.

INTERNSHIP!

So I have (unofficially) accepted my first internship with Simon West Productions, a small production company located on the Paramount lot! It's a really cool opportunity, only three people actually work in the office so the intern gets to do ALOT. I like it because they do both film and TV, this fall I'll be helping out as they begin production of a remake of "The Mechanic" (shooting in New Orelans!) AND wade their way through TV pilot development season! Crazy! I'll probably be working Monday and Wednesdays with them and hopefully Tuesdays and Fridays somewhere else (I have class on Thursdays). Can't wait to get started!

Family Feud! Again!

Sooo, last night among the hustle and bustle of Leno and the ensuing celebrations, I heard a few of my friends talking about going to a taping of Family Feud.

"We've kind of already done that," I protested.

"Let's do it again!" they said. "It's free plus we can see Burton Richardson!!!"

(Burton is the announcer for the Feud, who is a crackup in himself. Seriously, you'd think the dude was hosting Price is Right or...something.)

To be honest, I kind of thought we were joking, but woke up to a text saying that we got tickets! Great!....great. So we went...again. Bigger group this time, which was fun but we all kind of got split up by the PAs as they arranged the audience. It was a little sad to hear Burton make all the same jokes, but what can you do. Oh, and the audience performers were better this time. The math guy and his contortionist girlfriend get my vote for couple of the year.

All in all, more Feud fun.

Leno in the Oakwoods! (aka Celeb Sighting #3!)

(jay with random oakwood lady)

So, ice cream socials are fun. When you're ten maybe. After that, it just become a sad attempt at forced mingling around bowls of generic strawberry that's too pink for it's own good. We were walking to one at the North Clubhouse when alls of a sudden we see people running as fast as they can (some holding shoes in order to run faster so you know it's important) back past us towards the South Side of the Oakwoods. Realizing that there were all fellow IC kids only after they all had passed, one of us remarked that perhaps we should have asked why they were running.

As we shook rainbow sprinkles onto our sad little bowls of ice cream, we finally got our answer. Jay Leno was filming! In the Oakwoods! At the...South Clubhouse. So we finished our ice cream and booked it back to the south side. We arrived just in time to watch them film a few segments, some of which featured some ICLA students! It was cool to see their whole production close up (Jay's chin is bigger too) and Bryan Mercer finally made it onto real TV. With crabs. In a hot tub. With Jay Leno. Stay tuned...

(Jay is in the orange raingear. ICLA students, along with a
bunch of plastic crabs, are chillin in the hot tub.)

Interview! (and Celeb Sighting #2!)

Had an interview today at a small production company on the Paramount lot. I left the Oakwoods about an hour and a half early to give me enough time to fill up the tank and drive the NINE MILES on the 101s, get off at Vine St. and take it all the way down to Melrose (see? I'm getting good at navigating!). I got to drive through the actual big gate that says "Paramount Pictures" and everything, which I thought was awesome. Traffic was not as hellish as anticipated and I got there about an hour early. After following the map and ticket given to me by Cute Security Guy, I parked in what I thought was the visitor lot. I slid my seat back, and cracked open my book fully prepared to wait until ten o'clock in boredom.

Then, a big stinkin SUV pulled up a few spaces to my right. I didn't think much of it, in a city of big stinkin SUVs, but when the passengers got out, I had to make sure it wasn't anybody famous (I don't think this will ever get old). The first was a big guy, but was carrying way too much stuff, juggling a folder, Blackberry, and a few duffel bags, he was clearly "assistant". The other man however, looked a lot like LL Cool J. Oh wait...it was. I did a double take, then when he looked up at me, I dropped my eyes straight back down to my book. I have to learn to play it cool in this town, even if my PA liscence plate gives me away every time.

Interview went pretty well, I think. Mostly development stuff, but they do film and TV which is nice, and it's a small office so it seems like the intern is really involved. She said I would hear back within a few days, so, fingers crossed. I'm looking into more internships too, hoping to eventually have two, one in development and one in production, to get a feel for the scope of things. I'm still getting over being on an actualy movie lot today. As Not-So-Cute Security guy opened the gate to let me out, I thought "Yeah, I could do this every day."

The Biggest Target EVER

Went exploring around Burbank yesterday in search of Target, but mostly to practice LA driving/navigation. After a slight error involving the confusion of Victory BOULEVARD and Victory PLACE (here's an idea--just pick a new street name!), found said shopping center and what I discovered to be the BIGGEST TARGET STORE EVER. This may be employing some hyperbole, but seriously, this thing has got to have it's own zip. I tried to find a pic online to convey the magnitude, but couldn't. Suffice it to say that this was a darn big Target. I was impressed that I was able to find everything I needed without a map. Alas, no further celeb sightings. I thought they always shopped at Target...

Family Feud!

Went to a taping of Family Feud this morning! Despite an over-zealous announcer and a crazy "comedian" in line with us, it was a pretty good time, John O'Hurley is a funny guy (and his toddler son is a pretty good dancer). Eps 092, 093, and 094 should be airing in LA sometime in November, not sure about the rest of the US. Will definitely be watching ep 094 to hear Nick yell "Good Answer!" when one contestant made a fart joke. Good times.

Also, the taping was at Sunset Bronson Studios where they also tape Judge Judy and Judge Joe Brown. Kinda lessens the effect when you see Judy's "courtroom" is actually a little set in a big sound stage. Oh well. This town is all about appearance.

Celeb Sighting #1

Went to Ralph's for some groceries, saw Wayne Knight (Newman on Seinfeld among many other funny roles), then on the drive back saw Ed Begely Jr. and Taye Diggs cruisin around together!

Eats in LA #1

The Great Food Debate: Delicious, famous, world-renowned In N Out Burger or unknown, desperation its-literally-the-only-thing-left-open Yoshinoya beef bowl? Tough call.

Finally Here!

The adventure begins...