Mos Def "Quiet Dog"--Embedded Preview!

Posting this clip to promote EMBEDDED, which premieres tomorrow night at 11 on Current TV! Check it out!

Cloudy With A Chance Of Chipotle

This morning I was awoken by Callie insisting that I get out of bed and go to the Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs premiere. Apparently the theater that was having the premiere has a TON of seats and to fill them all, they just let people on the street in to see the movie (and hopefully some stars). So I rolled out of bed. We got to Westwood around one, and after a brief parking garage debacle, found the theater and the red carpet!


We got very excited...until we asked a security dude when the premiere started and he informed us that is was...just about to let out. Bummer. Anyway, we scored some sweet spots on the street to celeb-spot, and that we did! As the movie let out, we hung around with the autograph scorers, a fascinating culture unto themselves, holding their huge folders full of pictures of people they have scoped and hope to get autographs from. While we didn't see Anna Faris in person, we saw her husband Chris Pratt, and saw her from the back of the SUV as they drove away right past us. We also got to see James Caan, Neil Patrick Harris, and Bill Hader! Very cool. Bill even came over to the autograph hecklers and signed some stuff. Classy dude. and VERY attractive in person. I got some cell phone pics.

(blue button down is Bill)

Very cool Hollywood experience. Rounded out with some Chipotle and it was an excellent reason to get out of bed.

Writer's Guild Emmy Panel (and Celeb Sighting #7)

A very cool perk of the ICLA program, tickets to awesome programs like the Writer's Guild Panel of Emmy nominated TV writer's on Thursday night. There were writers from all different kinds of TV and the event was hosted by Rainn Wilson (Dwight K. Schrute to you Office fans). The event was held in the Writer's Guild Theater (hope it's not the last time I'll be there!) and it was very intersting. The Q&A was a little tedious and we were all exhausted from all long day of work/classes, but it was a very cool experience. Plus, when we were waiting outside to leave, Rainn Wilson walked right by us TWICE. Pretty cool.

(crappy cell pic but there they are!)

Writers on the Panel:

• Jack Burditt (30 Rock- he was a cool dude, talked about starting out as a reader, however he just moved back to LA and is working on The Old Adventures of New Christine, so...)
• Carlton Cuse (Lost- cool guy, he had a lot of good advice)
• Andre and Maria Jacquemetton (Mad Men- a married couple who writes together, and she was the only woman on the panel, offered a lot of good insight to the world of writing)
• Damon Lindelof (also Lost- seemed like a younger guy, he was funny and had a cute interchange with the Mad Men couple about how much they loved each others shows)
• Billy Kimball & Ian Maxtone-Graham (Simpsons- these guys looked like the were characters on the Simpsons, they were also dressed alike, very metro Harvard)
• Rob Kutner (nominated for the Daily Show, but works for Conan full-time now, a very funny nerdy guy)
• Michael Sucsy (Grey Gardens, which by the way was his first EVER screenplay. he talked alot.)

KARAOKE TIMES! (AND Celeb Sighting #6!)

One of the quintessential ICLA programs I was most excited for was karaoke at Dimples, and we finally made that dream come true last weekend. Six of us jammed into Mike’s rental Ford Focus and headed down to met up with a bigger group of IC kids who had tried to get in before the 8 p.m. underage cutoff. We hung out and watched our fellow students sing, got down to “Get Low” and then got the cherry on top of the sundae that we’d been told was the Dimples Experience. Principal Belding from “Saved By The Bell” showed up and SANG KARAOKE. It was awesome!



Karaoke fun, another great nostalgic celebrity sighting, and I also got a blinking lei necklace from Captain Morgan himself. All in all, good night.

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.

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!

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."

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!