The Valley Wire - 12/19/2008 Column

Hollywood and Christmas Memories
By Mary Beth Gentle

Yes Osceola, there is a Santa Claus and he comes from Hollywood. Every year without fail he brings a whole sack full of Holiday themed movies for us to unwrap and enjoy. There are the classics, there are the funny ones and there are the heart wrenching sad ones and until we have seen our favorite ones, our Holiday’s can’t really get started. I watch my first Christmas movie on Thanksgiving Day and I don’t stop until the New Year has been rung in. I watch them on DVD, I watch them on the Lifetime Channel and I watch them in the movie theatres.

My memories are interwoven with the Holiday movies I have watched over the years. I grew up watching little Natalie Wood believe in Santa Claus for the first time in a Miracle on 34th Street. And no matter how old I got, I believed right along with her, every time. As a child, I couldn’t wait for A Charlie Brown Christmas to play on TV. It was a big night in the Gentle household when Mom and Dad would let my sisters and I stay up late to watch Charlie Brown search for the true meaning of Christmas. But, without a doubt some of my fondest memories were when the whole family would camp out in front of the television every year to watch Frank Capra’s classic, It’s a Wonderful Life.

This is the first year that I was fortunate enough to see It’s a Wonderful Life up on the big screen. I watched George Bailey as he offered to throw a lasso around the moon and pull it down, proving his love to Mary Hatch. I watched as his life grew further and further away from the life he had dreamed of, until it spiraled into a place of utter hopelessness. And I watched as angel second-class Clarence Oddbody showed George just what life would have been like had he never been born. It is truly one of my favorite movies, and there is a lesson to be learned every time I watch it. Because just like George it is good to be reminded that “No man is a failure who has friends.”

I decided to take a quick poll of my fellow Hollywood cube dwellers to see what their favorite Holiday movies were. Of course I was sure they would all say It’s a Wonderful Life and my claim that it is the best Holiday movie to ever come out of Hollywood would be proven. And I got some answers in my favor and I got a few more of the classics as responses, White Christmas, Holiday Inn and The Bishop’s Wife. But, I was very surprised to see that some of the newer films made the top of the list, in fact they were in the top three. After I recovered from my favorite not being in the running, I decided to take a closer look at the top three.

Number three on the list was Elf. Not only was it a top favorite and described as an instant classic, I was amazed at how many of my fellow cube dwellers could deliver quotes from the movie without hesitating. The favorite of Post Production Supervisor, Brent Hall, was, “ You sit on the throne of lies!” He described the movie as “heart warming and hilarious”. To him, it was a perfect Holiday movie, pure happiness. And I have to say that Elf delivered just that, Will Ferrell plays, Buddy, an orphan who was raised by Santa’s elves. The twist here, they never told Buddy that he wasn’t an elf at all, that he was human. Buddy’s journey of discovery and pure joy of everything Christmas was enough to win me over.

Number two on the list was Chevy Chase’s, Christmas Vacation. The Griswold family set out to have a perfect old-fashioned family Christmas and instead got a house full of insanity. Editor, Don Thompson, called it a Classic saying, “Everyone has or has had this kind of crazy neighbor, thinks about their Christmas bonus and has family that you wish never showed up!” And Animation Coordinator, Alyssa Mauney, said, “I love everything from the opening credits to the jelly of the month club…it’s the gift that keeps on giving.” I haven’t seen this one in years, but I do remember the hilarious twists and turns and think it’s time to add it back onto my Christmas movie list.

And finally, number one on the list was cult classic, A Christmas Story. Hands down this one came in as a favorite on everyone’s list. Of course the movie is all about Christmas lists, 9-year old Ralphie Parker’s to be exact and in his words he only wants one thing, “an official Red Ryder carbine-action 200-shot range model air rifle with a compass in the stock, and this thing which tells time.” When he makes his wish known, he gets the same response from everyone, “You’ll shoot your eye out!” Financial Analyst, Karen Alana, had this to say about the movie, “From Ralphie’s obsession with getting a Red Ryder BB Gun to the family being serenaded with Deck the Halls in the Chinese restaurant on Christmas, it’s just my cup of tea!”

A Christmas Story is such a cult classic that every year it plays on TV for 24 hours straight starting on Christmas Eve. Ultimate fan, Post Production Supervisor, Jill Breitzman, said, “I have it playing for the full 24 hours every year since it started. My Sister and I even go so far as to dress in our pink bunny suits as a special “gift” to our Mom.” And Jill was kind enough to share this Christmas memory with a photo from her Hollywood Christmas Cubical!

So, no matter what your favorite Holiday movie is, whether you happen upon it while you are flicking channels or set aside time to settle in with a bowl of popcorn and the DVD, this Hollywood Cube Dweller hopes you have a wonderful Holiday season!

The Valley Wire - 11/14/2008 Column

Hollywood Holiday Movie Guide
By Mary Beth Gentle

The holiday movies have arrived and this year Hollywood’s gift basket is filled to the brim with tales of Vampires, stories to capture a child’s imagination, a ‘Yes man’ and an epic love story. And those are just the ones that have this cube dweller eager to escape the holiday madness and hide out in the local Cineplex. Every weekend from now until the end of the year there will be a slew of movies making their debut. From the mainstream movie fare to the Oscar contenders this year has a lot of entertainment to offer.

November starts the season off early with family fun in Madagascar 2, outrageous comedy in Role Models, action-adventure with James Bond in Quantum of Solace and an early Oscar entry with The Boy in the Stripped Pajamas. But, for me, the first big weekend of Holiday Movies comes on the weekend of November 21st with the release of a Walt Disney Pictures family film 3D event called Bolt and the highly anticipated film adaptation of the much loved book, Twilight.

Bolt hits 2D film Screens and where available Digital 3D Screens with a lot of anticipation. From what I have heard around town, this one sounds like it is going to be a hit and defiantly worth checking out, especially if you have access to theatre with 3D. Bolt tells the story of a pampered pouch that is also the star of a TV show about a ‘Super-Dog’. The twist here is that Bolt thinks he really is that Super-Dog and the actress that plays Penny, his young owner, really is his owner. So, when the season ends in a cliffhanger leaving Penny in dire straights, Bolt carries on the mission of his character to save Penny. With the voices of John Travolta and Miley Cyrus, we are taken on a journey with Bolt and his furry friends as a little dog discovers what true heroes really are.

Twilight is the next big release of the season and one I can’t wait to see. In fact, I have already bought my ticket for a sneak screening a day early! For anyone who has not caught the Twilight fever and read the book, this is a story of forbidden love between Bella, a seventeen-year-old girl and Edward, a forever young and handsome Vampire. There are millions of teenage girls and their mothers who have read the book and are standing by anxiously awaiting its release. The trick for this release will be to see if they can capture more than just their core audience. And with the amount of press I have seen on this one, they certainly are trying.

When seventeen-year-old Bella Swan moves to live with her father in the rainy little town of Forks Washington, she never expects to come face to face with mysterious and amazingly handsome Edward Cullen. Everyone, including Edward, warns Bella to stay away, but Bella cannot. As she is drawn further into her obsession of Edward, Bella soon discovers his and his family’s secret, they are vampires. Vampires that try really hard not to eat people, but vampires nonetheless. Knowing that being in his company can only lead to danger, love-smitten Edward tries to stay away from Bella, but their bond is too strong. And before long, Bella does fall into danger and it will be up to Edward to save her. To me, Twilight sounds like built-in movie fun, even if I hadn’t read the book.

And finally November’s offering of Holiday fare comes to a close on November 26th with the release of the Epic love story, Australia. This one re-teams Moulin Rouge director Baz Luhrmann with actress Nicole Kidman. The story unfolds in the outback of Northern Australia during World War II when a rich English aristocrat, Kidman, joins forces with a rough around the edges Australian cattle herder, Hugh Jackman, to save her cattle ranch from a takeover. Along the way they must survive an attack from the Japanese forces and come to terms with their growing attraction for each other, the result being a Hollywood Epic that I can’t wait to see. This is the kind of movie that promises adventure, romance and I’m sure a little heartbreak and from everything I have seen it looks sure to deliver.

Most of the big Oscar contenders will make themselves known in December and this year is no different with Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet’s Revolutionary Road, Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman in Doubt and Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Those are just a few of the growing list of December releases that hope to capture the Academy’s attention. But, two of the December Releases that have stood out to me as, again, good fun and a chance to escape the Holiday madness, are Jim Carrey’s Yes Man and Adam Sandler’s Bedtime Stories. Yes Man is the first one up, releasing to the big screen on December 19th. Based on the book by Danny Wallace, Yes Man tells the story of a man who decides to change his life by saying ‘Yes’ to everything that comes his way. By unleashing the power of yes into his life Jim Carrey’s character, Carl Allen, changes his life in many surprising and amazing ways. One look at the trailer and I added this to my list of must see fun Holiday movies. It looks to be classic Jim Carrey outrageous comedy with, I’m hoping, a little heart mixed in.

And finally, to be released on Christmas Day, is Adam Sandler’s, Bedtime Stories. This one is sure to capture the imagination in this family comedy of a Hotel handyman, Sandler, whose life changes when the elaborate bedtime stories he tells his niece and nephew start to magically come to life. When he attempts to turn this mysterious phenomenon into financial gain for himself by weaving his own good fortune into his stories, his niece and nephew also add their own twists to the tales, turning his life upside down. Maybe it’s because I tell stories to my two nephews all the time, or maybe it’s because I just can’t help laughing at Adam Sandler’s antics, but this one looks like it might be worth a trip to the theatre over the holiday season.

So, as the Holiday madness of Turkey dinners and hours of shopping descend on our lives, just remember that we can all find a little solace in the aroma of popcorn and the slurp of a good Icee at our local theatres this Holiday movie season. Happy Holiday movie watching from the Hollywood cubicle.

The Valley Wire - 10/17/2008 Column

Hollywood Travels the Hard Times
By Mary Beth Gentle

Hollywood is preparing to travel the hard financial times ahead. They are making cuts and reviewing budgets. They are no different than any other big business and cannot escape the effects of the current financial crisis. In fact, Hollywood could hardly be called a newcomer to hard times. It has survived many turbulent financial periods over the years, including the Great Depression. Because no matter how hard the times get, the American public still wants to be entertained, which means Hollywood will survive. And no movie reflects this sentiment better than the Preston Sturges 1941 classic, Sullivan’s Travels.

The movie follows a young and naïve Hollywood director, John ‘Sully’ Sullivan, and his desire to make a film about the troubles of the poor and downtrodden. He decides to leave behind the comforts of his mansion, his swimming pool and his bank account to go out into the real world and experience life among the masses. Can you imagine if the CEO of one of the Fortune 500 companies or a Hollywood mogul of today decided to do that?

I, for one, cannot. Especially when my view from the Hollywood cubicle is that of the Senior Executives walking the hallways and shaking their heads at the plight of their stock options while they monitor the tumbling market on their Blackberry’s. Of course, those of us in the Hollywood cubicles have never seen a stock option, so we are not as dramatic about the effects of the current situation, we just know that our already tight budgets are going to have to get a little tighter.

In my little corner of the Hollywood cubicle world, we have decided to start brown bagging our lunches. Although, I’m sure it will do nothing for our ‘Hollywood Hipster’ images, it will keep our checkbooks out of the red. It may not be hip to sit in the corner of the commissary with a brown bag lunch, but who knows, maybe we will start a trend because we can’t be the only cubicle dwellers trying to save a buck in these hard times.

But, even if our brown bag lunches get a little leaner and times get a little tougher, the one thing we know we can count on is that Hollywood will see us through the hard times by keeping us entertained. This is the lesson John ‘Sully’ Sullivan learned on his travels. His journey took him to a point where he has lost his money, his freedom, his identity, his health and his pride. Incarcerated in a prison work camp he learned the importance of laughter one evening when he and his fellow prisoners were allowed to watch a Walt Disney Cartoon. It was there, surrounded by the poor and downtrodden that he had so desperately wanted to understand, that John ‘Sully’ Sullivan realized that even though he had lost everything, he still had the ability to laugh. He saw the true power of laughter first hand.

I think the opening dedication in Sullivan’s Travels says it all, “To the memory of those who made us laugh: the motley mountebanks, the clowns, the buffoons, in all times and in all nations, whose efforts have lightened our burden a little, this picture is affectionately dedicated.” So when the gas prices go on the rise again or the scrimping and saving to make ends meet starts to wear thin, just remember that laughter may be the best medicine. Take in a movie, tune into a sitcom or if you haven’t seen it yet rent Sullivan’s Travels and escape the hard times for just a little while.

Blood Moon - Charity Book Auction

Need A Dress Up Idea For Halloween This Year?

Why Not Be A Women’s Cancer Fighting Super Hero!

Make a donation. Bid on an item. Join Blood Moon author A.W. Gryphon and Jeepers Creepers Jonathan Breck for an auction of celebrity collectibles, hosted by the Charity Folks organization, in support of the Entertainment Industry Foundations Women’s Cancer Programs.

October ends with Halloween and its Breast Cancer Month all month long. Join in on the bidding at CharityFolks.com for a host of celebrity items, including a personalized Jeepers Creepers 1 DVD paired with a signed Creeper Action Figure and a personalized, leather bound, No. 1 copy of Blood Moon from a limited edition series.

The bidding begins on September 30 and closes on October 14, the night of this year’s Blood Moon!

Every penny helps. Please visit the Events page at www.awgryphon.com for more information about Charity Folks, EIF Women’s Cancer Programs and how you can help or Go Straight to the Link Below To Place Your Bid!

http://www.charityfolks.com/cfauctions/auction_verticalngo.asp?slrid=59

BLOOD MOON - New Book to Read!

Blood Moon is a new book by first time novelist and friend A.W. Gryphon (Allison). It is the first of a three part series and having just read part one - I already can't wait for the next installment. I encourage all of you to pick up a copy (Available at Amazon) to support a fellow writer and enjoy a great read!

Set in the world of Wiccan lore, the story follows young Amelia Pivens, whose perfect childhood crashes to a halt the night her mother is murdered right infront of her. She turns her back on her wiccan life and her study of the craft until the year of her 28th birthday when it all comes back to her full force. As her birthday and the Blood Moon approaches, Amelia must rediscover who she is if she is going to face the truths of her past and survive the murderous plots surrounding her.

This is a great Halloween read!!

And Don't forget to check out Allison's website! http://www.awgryphon.com/

The Valley Wire Column - 9/19/2008

Hollywood Falls for the New TV Season
By Mary Beth Gentle

It’s over! It’s over! No more re-runs! No more retakes on Japanese Game Shows! No more bad summer TV! I don’t know about the rest of you, but those of us in the Hollywood cubicles are beside ourselves with excitement at the prospect of new TV to watch. Because it is finally that time of year again, summer is over, school is starting and the Fall TV season is upon us. Old favorite shows return and new ones try to capture an audience. And we, the audience, are ready to leave behind the drudgery of summer re-runs and settle in on our couches for our weekly favorites.

The line-ups have been set and the Networks are busily analyzing the rating numbers of the shows that have already premiered and trying to predict the numbers of the shows yet to begin. It’s a busy time of year. And not just for the networks, it’s busy in the Hollywood cubicles. And by busy I don’t mean the work that goes into the creating, posting and promoting the shows. I mean busy in the watching of the shows.

When you work in a Hollywood cubicle it’s important to watch, monitor and predict the success and failure of the fall season. I guess it is not that much different than working on Wall Street and keeping up on the latest hot stocks. Or any business for that matter, it’s important to know the product if you are going to predict it’s future. The only difference here, I have a DVR that is about to explode.

Returning favorites that cannot be missed include; Heroes, Chuck, Gossip Girl, Desperate Housewives, Grey’s Anatomy, Pushing Daisies, Eli Stone and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles to name just a few. The shows have had their premiere parties, their new season cast photos have been distributed to all the magazines and the recap episodes are all available on-line. Maybe it’s another sign that I may never run with the Hollywood Hipsters, but I for one can’t wait to see what villains the writers of Heroes have in store for us this season. Not to mention what the ladies of Wysteria Lane and the popular kids of Gossip Girl are going to get up to.

New shows that have been hyped just enough to peak my interest include; Worst Week, 90210, Fringe, Gary Unmarried, Kath & Kim, and Life on Mars. This is the first year in awhile that there are more than a few new sitcoms that hold some potential. Worst Week, based on a BBC series, follows hapless magazine editor, Sam Briggs, as he bumbles thru his week trying to impress his girlfriend and his future in-laws. Re-vamping a BBC show worked for The Office, here’s hoping it works for this one too. Gary Unmarried stars Jay Mohr as newly divorced dad of two traversing his way thru the changes in his life – basically the draw here is the humor of Jay Mohr. And who can resist tuning into the soapy retro fun of 90210 to see what has happened to Brenda and Kelly. These are a few of the new shows that are going to make it onto my ‘record list’- at least for the first few episodes.

Some of these shows are already a few weeks into the new season, which means that by the time I add in returning reality shows like Survivor, Dancing with the Stars and Amazing Race and cable shows like Entourage, Tru Blood or The Tudors. I’m looking at a DVR that will quickly be reaching maximum capacity. But, I guess if I am going to try to stay ahead in the Hollywood cubicle I need to stay on top of all that TV watching so I can throw my two cents in when the hallways turn to talk of which shows will make it and which shows will be cut. It’s like I’m my own little network!

The Valley Wire - 8/29/2008 Column

Hollywood is Crazy for Sports
By Mary Beth Gentle

Hollywood has always been crazy for sports, some might even say it’s a bit of an obsession. Right now in Hollywood, everyone from the lowly cube dwellers to the senior studio executives are in recovery mode after all the late hours spent watching Team USA night after night pursue Olympic glory. The struggles and hardships that many Olympic competitors had to overcome on their road to the medal podium was captivating, exciting and inspirational. All of which was a constant reminder as to why Hollywood loves making a good sports movie, its heroes are bigger than life and their stories touch something in all of us.

One of the first Hollywood sports movies that falls into this category would have to be 1942’s The Pride of the Yankees starring Gary Cooper as the great Lou Gehrig. It is not praised for its baseball playing accuracy, but it’s touching tale of the baseball great from his New York Childhood to his famous ‘Luckiest Man’ speech set the standard for heartfelt sports movies. The themes in this movie are the same as they are today. At the core of any good sport movie is love, friendship, compassion and heroism.

Another movie that has to be mentioned is 1976’s Rocky starring Sylvester Stallone. And when I say Rocky, I mean the original not the many mediocre films that followed in the series. The Original Rocky not only won best picture that year, but it won the hearts of millions as it told the story of the struggling, small time boxer Rocky Balboa. We watched as his training routine had him pummeling sides of beef in the meat factory, we watched as he won the heart of shy pet store worker Adrian Pennino and we watched as he put everything he had into going the distance against champion Apollo Creed. Rocky was the hero that the ‘everyman’ could relate to.

And my personal favorite is a slightly different sport movie, the 1989, Field of Dreams starring Kevin Costner. When Iowa farmer, Ray Kinsella hears a voice from his cornfield bidding him, ‘If you build it, he will come’ he is compelled to tear out part of his crop to build a baseball field. What he thought was going to be a ball field for disgraced White Sox baseball player Shoeless Joe Jackson and his teammates quickly became more of a quest to give second chances to people who sacrificed what might have been. Ray ends up on a journey of self-discovery as he helps a disillusioned writer and an old Doctor find joy in their own baseball dreams again.

But, at the end of the day Ray gets a second chance of his own when someone close to his heart comes to the ball park for one final ‘throw’. The love of baseball is what draws all these characters to this small field in Iowa, but at the core of this movie is a lesson to be learned about holding onto your dreams.

There have been many more inspiring sport stories over the years; Hoosiers, The Natural, Rudy, Miracle and Remember the Titans to name a just a few. It doesn’t matter what your goals are, it doesn’t matter if they are even sports related, these movies are filled with enough inspiration and heart to go around. And for a struggling writer sitting in a Hollywood cubicle, I will take inspiration wherever I can get it.

The Valley Wire - 8/8/2008 Column

Hollywood and the Musical
By Mary Beth Gentle

Hollywood and the musical have had an on again, off again, relationship for years now. And I for one am thrilled that this summer the Hollywood musical is back on. This is the summer of Mama Mia!. And not only has it had more than steady box office returns it is downright fun.

The Hollywood musical has been around from just about the beginning. Basically, as soon as movies managed to get sound, they got music. It all began back in 1929 with Al Jolson in The Jazz Singer. By the 1930’s the Hollywood musical had become a box office force to be reckoned with. From Fred Astaire and Ginger Rodgers to Judy Garland, there seemed to be no stopping them. By the 1950’s and 1960’s the musical had become a cinematic event with movies like; Guys and Dolls, The King and I and The Sound of Music.

Then came the Seventies and Disco and the face of the Hollywood musical changed. The only musicals that were allowed came to us from the theatre first and foremost. Once they had been tried and tested on the stage, the Studios were willing to take a risk, not many of which paid off financially. When we hit the late Eighties and Nineties, thanks to Disney, the musical was saved. Of course, they were only accepted if they were animated.

And now, today, there may be hope for the musical again. Last year we had Enchanted and Across the Universe. And this year we have Mama Mia!. Mama Mia! is a feature film adaptation of the hit stage production based on ABBA’s music. The all star cast includes; Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgard, Christine Baranski, Julie Walters, Amanda Seyfried and Dominic Cooper in the story of a mother, a daughter and her three possible fathers.

The movie opens with twenty-year-old Sophie (Seyfried) preparing to marry her boyfriend Sky (Cooper) at her mother's (Streep) hotel on a tiny Greek island. Her deepest wish is to be given away by her father at her wedding. By reading her mother's diary she discovers that she has three possible fathers (Brosnan, Firth and Skarsgard). Sophie secretly invites all three men to the wedding. But, not all goes according to plan and old loves are re-kindled as Sophie risks everything to discover the true identity of her father.

Combine the cast and the performances with the already widely popular stage play and Universal has a built-in formula for a hit. Which is exactly what this movie is. You may ask why a Hollywood Cube dweller like myself is going on and on about a musical amid a summer of superhero blockbusters and all I can say is that it has been the best surprise of the summer.

In two weeks time, Mama Mia! has already grossed over 75 million dollars. And in the summer box office world of movies that contain no explosions, no flying superheroes or villainous bad guys that is a very good start to what will be classified as a bone fide hit by the end of the summer. It won’t hit The Dark Knights numbers, it won’t even come close, but its production budget was far less, so they don’t have to make as much to find themselves out of the red and into the black.

So, take it from a Hollywood Cube Dweller who has seen all the big summer blockbusters, this is my new pick of the summer. And as I crank up the soundtrack a little louder in my cube, I can only hope the musical is on it’s way back for good.

The Valley Wire - 7/18/2008 Column

Hollywood Goes to the Comics
By Mary Beth Gentle

Every summer without fail Hollywood gets their ‘geek on’ and goes to the Comics. The biggest movies of the summer are usually based on one comic book character or another. What was once considered light reading for children or a favorite pastime for the geek-at-heart has become a mega-million dollar business, a business which Hollywood has always been only too happy to capitalize upon. This summer alone we have Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk and, of course, Batman.

And nowhere are these comics bigger or their fans more serious about their Comics, their Movies and their TV than at the San Diego International Comic-Con. This is an annual event held every July in the San Diego, California Convention Center. For those of you that have not heard of it, you might think, hmmm…a comic book convention and immediately picture a bunch of geeks reading, buying and trading comics.

Well, it may have started out that way back in the seventies when the attendance was around three hundred people, but today it is one of the largest conventions in America with last year’s attendance topping around 127,000 people. It is one of the biggest arenas for the large and small Hollywood Studios to not only pitch and promote their latest line-ups, but to search out known and unknown comic book artists and writers in hopes of finding the next big summer hit.

And it affects even those of us sitting in the Hollywood cubicles. In the months leading up to Comic-Con, Studio Publicity Departments and the Filmmakers are busy planning out their Booths, their Panels and their Clip Reels. And by booths, I don’t mean a small table with a pile of posters on it, the Hollywood majors go all out.

At last years Comic-Con, Walt Disney Studios built a replica of the front of the Pirate ship from Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End that the fans could walk through to see a display of costumes and props from the movie. NBC Studios brought an entire set from the TV Show Heroes to put up in the middle of the convention center. I can tell you right now, they don’t do that at Cannes.

The biggest events at Comic-Con are the Film and TV Cast Panels. This year they will have talent there from; Lost, Stargate, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, Twilight, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Battlestar Galactica, Pushing Daisies and those are just to name a few. Not to mention that the official name of Friday at Comic-Con is ‘Star Wars Day’. There are four days of panels, screenings and events that are for the most part already sold out.

Over the years, the level of talent that has come to Comic-Con could compete with that of Cannes or Sundance. But, the focus here is comics, so it will never get the critical acclaim or media coverage of those other big events. But, who cares about critical acclaim, this is Comic-Con. This is where the ‘geek’ gets to be a king for a few days every year. And take it from one big Movie, TV and okay…Comic Book Geek…there is nothing like it. Sundance may be where the cool kids go, but I’m telling you right now, Comic-Con is where the party is.

The other big event at Comic-Con every year is a little thing called, “Trailer Park”. This is where the Studios, big and small, premiere all their new trailers for upcoming movies. They take one of the largest rooms at the Convention Center and hang rows of giant screens so that no matter what seat you end up with, you can still see all the action.

The Studios may act like they don’t care about anyone but themselves the rest of the year, but once a year at Comic-Con they do remember the most important thing; the Fans. And the Fans are the reason those people sitting in the big offices and those of us in the Hollywood Cubicles have jobs. And I for one am glad that Hollywood has gone to the Comics.

The Valley Wire - 6/20/2008 Column

Hollywood and the Summer Intern
By Mary Beth Gentle

It is that time of year in Hollywood that Summer Interns take their first steps into the exciting and glamorous world of the entertainment business. And those of us in the Hollywood cubicles are doing one of two things this time of year, we are either reminiscing about our own internships or we are stacking up dusty piles of long forgotten paperwork for the new intern to sort thru and file. Depending on how fondly we all remember our own internships will determine how high the pile of filing will be.

For me, my Internship was spent in a Producer’s office located at Raleigh Studios. Raleigh Studios is a small independent Film Studio in the heart of Hollywood. They opened back in 1915 as the Famous Players Fiction Studios. Silent film era icon, Charlie Chaplin, was one of the owners and filmed many projects there.

For a kid from nowhere’s-ville USA, it was a dream come true. I was going to work for a Producer on a historic Hollywood Studio lot, right across the street from Paramount Studios. It was a coveted internship and it was mine. I couldn’t wait to be a part of the Industry that I had spent a lifetime (all twenty-two years) reading about, studying obsessively and absorbing every detail I could get my hands on. This was going to be amazing I was going to be right in the middle of it, working in a Producer’s office, making movies.

Instead, I spent three months making all new files for the entire office and learning the in’s and out’s of the fascinating world of copy machine operation. The only time I saw the Producer was to get her a glass of water one day. I don’t think she actually knew who I was or why I was there, but she was thirsty and I was handy. Welcome to Hollywood. I wasn’t exactly sure how this internship was going to move me closer to my goals or how I could somehow spin this to make it sound really exciting to the folks back at home.

But, as with anything in life, it is what you make it. And I made the most of those three months that I could. I made files. I made the best darn files that were ever made. I took that simple task and I set out to impress anyone that would take notice. And in my case, and the case of my impressive files, it was the Producer’s Assistant. She had the all-encompassing job of managing the ever-ringing phone lines and Calendar for the Producer. And as busy as she was, she took the time to give a kid a break and she shared what she knew about the business.

Every day I would go to lunch with that Assistant. We would walk across the street to the Paramount lot and she would introduce me to the guys delivering the mail, to the security guys guarding the Sound Stages and to other Producer Assistant’s hanging out in the commissary and somewhere along the way I realized that it didn’t matter what title someone had or how high up the Hollywood ladder they were, everyone had a story to tell and all I had to do was listen. So, I listened and I learned a lot that summer.

This year, my fellow Hollywood Cubicle dwellers and I have an intern of our very own. His name is Mike, Mike the Intern, and he comes to us all the way from Georgetown University. The week before he started, I could see my co-worker’s minds working overtime and their fingers furiously typing lists of things he could do for them. They were like kids making out their lists for Santa.

I asked Mike the Intern what this experience meant to him. “This internship means one thing to me, and that's opportunity. I am at ground zero of the largest production company in the world and am looking foreword to not only a great summer, but to set the stage for a future career in the industry.”

I also asked him what he hoped to learn this summer that would help him achieve his career goals. “This summer I want nothing else, but to learn as much as I can about the industry. I want to have a firm grasp on every gear and axle that makes up the entertainment machine. Not only to narrow down my full time job, but to be knowledgeable about the entire process, so I can better understand how my role fits in the overall context of the industry.”

Mike the Intern has been working with us for a few weeks now, and yes we have had him sort thru piles of old paperwork and okay maybe we have had him make a file or two, but we have also made it our mission to show him as much as we can about the movie making process. In a few short weeks he has been to the film processing lab, he has been to a dubbing stage and he has had the opportunity to observe a day of shooting on a sound stage. Because luckily for him, we all do remember what it was like to be young, eager and an intern.

The Valley Wire - 5/16/2008 Column

Hollywood Dreams of the Blockbuster
By Mary Beth Gentle

Did you ever have a dream that you wanted so bad you could taste it? Feel it in your soul? Make your head ache just thinking of it? For me that dream was and in many ways still is, Hollywood. It started as something far away and intangible, something that other people went on to do, certainly not something a quiet, shy kid from No-where’s-ville, USA would ever be a part of.

Sometimes I wonder where my dream of a life in Hollywood all began, where and at what moment I was hooked. Maybe it was the Saturday Matinees at the little theatre on our small town’s Main Street, where they would play old Disney movies while we ate our popcorn and slurped our sodas. Maybe it was the Sunday afternoons spent watching old black and white Cary Grant movies with my Grandmother. Or maybe it was the seventh grade field trip to the local TV station where I got to see the cameras and lights close up.

I think all those things helped nurture the dream, but the more I think about it the dream for me was created by the Hollywood Summer Blockbuster. These are the big budget movies that every Studio spends all year prepping, shooting and posting to get on screen for Memorial Weekend through Labor Day Weekend. For me, that was my summer vacation, I had it planned from the moment school let out to the moment it started back up in September. I knew which ones I had to see and which ones I would see over and over again.

And I am still the same way. My summer is not planned out by elaborate vacation plans to some great escape or a tropical get away. It’s planned out by what movie opens on what weekend, how early I am going to buy my tickets and where I am going to see it. And for me this summer is a true flashback to the days of my youth. This is the summer of one of the ultimate blockbusters, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Raiders of the Lost Ark was the movie that really cemented the dream in place for me. The movie opened on June 12, 1981 and I think I saw it five times that summer, if not more. It was the wildest movie ride I had ever been on. It was a movie that had it all; it had non-stop action like we had never seen before, a classic American Hero to root for and truly bad guys to fear. It was and still is everything a blockbuster should be; it is why we go to the movies, buy our popcorn and smile as the rare hush falls over the audience the moment the first frame of action lights up the screen.

I have already watched the trailer for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull countless times. I get a little giddy just thinking about it. And I am supposed to be a cool, jaded Hollywood Hipster. Well, I hate to break it to everyone, but when it comes to Indiana Jones, I am simply a movie geek who works in a Hollywood cubicle. And trust me, I am proud of it.

There are other movies out this summer; Wall-E, Prince Caspian, Iron Man, The Dark Knight, The Incredible Hulk to name a few. And I will see them all, but I can already tell you that none of them will compare to Indiana Jones. Because none of them hold the same sense of nostalgia, none of them come close to the level of pop culture status that Indiana Jones has and none of them can be counted as having sparked a far off dream in the mind of a young girl from No-where’s-ville, USA.

So, even when I have weeks like this past one, where I have worked a seventy-hour week and I’m not sure if any of the powers that be care or recognize my efforts, I still smile a little at the thought that I’m actually here, living my dream. And at least for one moment, during one movie this summer, I will be that kid again, standing on a long line waiting to be one of the first to see the ultimate Summer blockbuster, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

The Valley Wire - 4/18/2008 Column

Hollywood on Location
By Mary Beth Gentle

It used to be that kids dreamed of running away to join the Circus; the big tent, the lights and the lure of a life filled with excitement. Well, I think in our day and age, the Circus has been replaced by ‘Hollywood on Location’. There is nothing more exciting then when the ‘circus’ that is Hollywood comes to town. It’s good for revenue, it’s good for morale and it’s guaranteed to capture the hearts and imagination of anyone harboring a secret dream of working in the movie business.

Hollywood goes on location for one big reason, there is no sound stage or studio back-lot that can create the look and feel of the real thing. If their story takes place in Chicago, then they need to shoot in Chicago. They need the audience watching their movie to feel like they are actually there. The town in the script is not only a backdrop for the story being told, it helps set the scene and define the characters. John Hughes’ movies and characters would not have been the same if they had been shot anywhere else.

When the camera and equipment trucks roll into town they bring with them the allure and excitement that is Hollywood, but they also bring entire crews of people that put their day to day lives on hold to do a job. They say goodbye to their families for weeks or months at a time. They hire pet and house sitters, they find friends who are willing to collect their mail and overnight it to them once a week and they pack as much of their lives in to bags and boxes to set up ‘home’ wherever they end up.

Production crews dream of being on the movie that shoots on some tropical, sun-splashed beach, but more often than not, they end up in small towns like Vernal, Utah. These crews curse their luck and quickly go on the internet to see exactly what they are facing. What they read frightens them to their core, a city of maybe eight thousand people that is famous for a large pink dinosaur welcoming them to town. This is enough to frighten these crew members into contemplating another career, but they quickly remind themselves that they have bills and a mortgage to pay and it is only six weeks or so of their lives.

Of course, what they discover when they arrive, is a town filled with genuine, nice people in a city that is surrounded by the beauty of the Flaming Gorge National Park. For one such crew member, assistant editor, Christopher Marino, working on the movie Chill Factor in Vernal, Utah, that was exactly the experience he had. Of all the locations he has worked in, that one holds some of the fondest memories for him. Not because of the time spent seeing the sights, but for the people.

To this day, he speaks of their kindness and generosity. “I still haven’t gotten over how, at Halloween, when my wife came for a visit, we couldn’t find a pumpkin anywhere. (Vernal loves it’s holidays!) When I asked a local waitress where we could find a pumpkin, she told me that she had an extra and would have her sister bring it to the restaurant. My wife and I were just happy to have even the smallest reject-pumpkin at this point. At the end of the meal, in comes a woman carrying a twenty-pound pumpkin! My wife and I reminisce about that Halloween every year.”

Most of the people on a movie crew come to town with the Production. But, they always wait and hire the most essential crew member when they arrive on location, the Production Assistant (“PA”). This is usually someone young, eager and happy to race around town running errands and getting lunch. What the crews gets, is a person who knows the ‘ins’ and ‘outs’ of the area. What the entertainment industry gets, is another convert. The cubicles and production offices in Hollywood are filled with people who started their careers working as a PA on the movie that shot in their hometown.

The Valley Wire - 3/21/2008 Column

Hollywood Does Lunch
By Mary Beth Gentle

You might think that in Hollywood the most important part of the day is when the Director yells ‘Action’ or when the Head of the Studio gives your project the ‘green light’. But actually, the most important part of the day in Hollywood is lunch. It is what gets us through. We watch our clocks for it. We plan for it. And depending how high up the Hollywood Ladder you are, determines just how much time you get for lunch.

The Agents and the Studio Bosses hold their three-hour power lunches in Beverly Hills at either ‘The Ivy’ or the ‘Grill on the Alley’. The hip hangout for the young Hollywood Celebrities and their two hour lunches would be ‘Hyde’ or ‘Les Deux’ which is easily recognized by the Paparazzi hanging around outside. And trust me, Hollywood has it down when it comes to serving up lunch from a Catering Truck. These are not ‘roach coaches’ either, these are Four Star Restaurants on wheels. When the First Assistant Director on the set of a Movie or TV show yells, ‘that’s lunch’ the cast and crew race to the chow line for their thirty minute lunch break.

None of those lunches comes close to lunch inside a Production Office. The Production Office is the hub of any Film or TV endeavor. They spend weeks and weeks prepping crews to go off and shoot in all types of conditions, they wrangle talent, they wrangle budgets and they wrangle trucks full of equipment. But, hands down the most important part of their day is wrangling lunch which is eaten at their desks.

This highly specialized and very important task ultimately rests on the shoulders of the guy or girl at the very bottom of the ladder. The Production Assistant (PA) is the lucky member of the crew to hold the position of ‘lunch wrangler’. The PA starts his day flipping through a pile of menus collected from every restaurant within a ten mile radius of the Production office. You don’t know stress until you have to figure out which one restaurant is going to make thirty or more people happy.

Most PA’s start their days praying that maybe, just maybe it will be a pizza day. Not only is it easier to order; they deliver. Sadly, pizza days are few and far between. Pizza days usually only happen when the PA must stand at the copy machine for nine hours making copies of the script for the entire cast and crew. So, really the whole concept of Pizza Day is not a winning solution.

Once a restaurant is selected, the PA will spend the next two hours taking orders from all the different departments within the Production office. You can always guarantee you will have at least thirty lunch orders to collect. And that is the easy part. You then have to go order all the lunches, pick them up and make sure they are correct and labeled for each individual in the office. This is usually where some ‘old-timer’ pats the poor kid on the back and says, “Welcome to Hollywood.”

That is how the rest of Hollywood does lunch. Of course, in the Hollywood Cubicle it is a completely different story. Those of us working the Studio jobs behind the scenes are left to fend for ourselves, but we do get to leave our desks for a whole hour. This usually means a trip to the Studio Commissary. And you better believe that there are the good, the bad and the ugly when it comes to Studio Commissary food.

I have eaten at all the Studio Commissary’s and in my opinion, Twentieth Century Fox Commissary is just good eating. If you are working in a Hollywood Cubicle on the Fox lot, you have won the golden ticket. Not only are you basking in the glorious sunshine of the Westside, but you are eating high off the hog in the Fox Commissary. Now, the poor saps working in a Hollywood Cubicle on the Paramount lot, they truly are the saddest ‘Cube’ Workers in all of Hollywood. The Paramount Commissary makes a killer breakfast burrito, but when it comes to lunch you are better off brown bagging it.

No matter where you end up eating in Hollywood, it’s never about the food, it’s about the deal made at the power lunch, the crew getting a much deserved break after an already long day or the Hollywood Cube worker getting away from their four grey walls for an hour everyday.

So, the next time you head out on your lunch break and pull up a chair at your local Osceola Bistro, remember that it may not be the glamour of ‘The Ivy’ in Beverly Hills, but at least you are not eating Meatloaf Surprise at Paramount, again.

The Valley Wire - 2/22/2008 Column

Hollywood and the Academy Awards
By Mary Beth Gentle

The Writer’s Strike is over! TV Shows are heading back into production. And the Academy Awards are going on as scheduled. Life in Hollywood is getting back to normal. Or, I guess, as normal as a place known to the world as ‘tinsel town’ can be. It will take some time to get the shows back on the air and to get everyone working again, but as the saying goes, ‘the show must go on’.

And in the blink of an eye, that is just what happens, the focus around town shifts from the striking writers to the Academy Awards. And excitement is in the air here in the Hollywood Cubicles. It begins the same way every year. As soon as the Nominations are announced, we all start making our lists. What have we seen? What do we need to see? What can we just pretend we saw?

Don’t get me wrong, this is not because I or anyone in my near vicinity is actually going to the Academy Awards nor will we be on any of the after party invite lists. This is for a far more important reason than walking the red carpet or sipping martinis with George Clooney. This is for the Office Oscar Pool. And it is serious business. In these hallways, this is bigger than the Superbowl. And it is not just our office pool that has us shifting into research mode, it is the Oscar pools that our family and friends across the country are in.

This is not simply picking a square in a giant grid, this is about successfully predicting the correct outcome of twenty-four different categories. You always have to start out with the big awards; best picture, best actor and best actress. The films in the running for Best Picture this year are; Atonement, Juno, Michael Clayton, No Country for Old Men and There will be Blood. Now early research shows that Atonement has a pretty good shot at taking the prize. But, no one is counting out Critical favorite No Country for Old Men, nor are they counting out underdog favorite Juno.

Best Actor nominations this year are; George Clooney (Michael Clayton), Daniel Day-Lewis (There will be Blood), Johnny Depp (Sweeny Todd), Tommy Lee Jones (In the Valley of Elah) and Viggo Mortensen (Eastern Promises). This category is a little tougher, early awards have gone to a few of these gentlemen with the favorites so far being Daniel Day-Lewis for There will be Blood and George Clooney for Michael Clayton.

Best Actress nominations this year are; Cate Blanchett (Elizabeth: The Golden Age), Julie Christie (Away From Her), Marion Cotillard (La Vie en Rose), Laura Linney (The Savages) and Ellen Page (Juno). Another tough category, the favorite is looking like Julie Christie for Away From Her, but no one is counting out the star of the Underdog hit of the year, Ellen Page for Juno.

Those are the big awards. Those are the easy ones to predict. Once you narrow them down to a short list, you can start researching what the polls are saying and take a pretty good guess. I mean they have odds running in Vegas on who will win those awards.

But, the tougher ones to predict are the awards for categories like; Best Achievement in Film Editing, Best Original Screenplay or Best Achievement in Visual Effects. This is where you really have a chance to impress you sister in Chicago if you can help her win these categories on her office Oscar pool. Because, if you do enough research and pay attention to who took the prize at the different Guild Awards Dinners this year, then you are on the fast track to getting these categories correct.

And finally, it comes down to the near impossible to predict, the awards for categories such as; Best Documentary Short Subject, Best Foreign Language Film of the Year or Best Animated Short. Don’t let anyone try to kid you either, even in the Hollywood Cubicles we really have no idea what has a shot here. It usually comes down to picking the title you may have actually heard people talking about or just picking the title that has a nice ring to it. Either way, these categories are all guess work and just plain luck.

I, myself, have never actually won an Oscar Pool. I start out every year with the best intentions. I do all the research. I read all the predictions. I should be able to win these things every year. But, at the end of the day, when it comes time to sit with my ballot and make my selections, I really can’t help but to go with my heart. I do it every year. And I lose every year.

But, isn’t that what the Academy Awards are all about anyway? Going with our hearts? Picking the films that touched something in us? Picking our favorite Actor for loyalty sake? I think it is what makes it fun to sit in front of the television every year and hope that the underdog can pull it off or hope that a surprise win will shock everyone. After all, putting on a great show is what Hollywood is all about. I don’t know about you, but I will be watching come Sunday night, with my heart-picked ballot in front of me, and my hopes high.

The Valley Wire - 1/18/2008 Column

Screenwriter Annie Deyoung with Supporters James and Ethan Marino


Hollywood and the Picket Line
By Mary Beth Gentle

Not every picket line you come across has writers picketing alongside pilots and flight attendants or row after row of ‘Trekkies’ walking the line at Studio Main Gates. But, in Hollywood, that is how the picket line has come to look. They are called ‘theme’ days. Inviting the fans and crew of a particular show or members of a particular union to picket the studio where the show is produced is one way the writers on the picket line have found to keep their momentum going. It clearly shows the support from other unions and from television and film fans.

There have been quite a few ‘theme’ days to date: Teamster Support days, Bring Your Favorite Actor to Work days, ‘Battlestar Galactica’ days, Joss Whedon Fandom days, Veteran Writer days, Bring Your Kids to the Picket Line days, Bring Your Dog days, Singles on the Picket Line days, SAG Solidarity days, Horror Writer days and Crime Writer days. The list could go on, and will go on, as long as the strike continues. In doing all of this, the Writers are sending a clear message: we are not alone and we are not going anywhere.

I have not had to cross many picket lines in my life and it breaks my heart a little every day as I drive through the Studio Gate past the striking writers. So, I do little things to show support. I wave a big sign that reads ‘Support the Writers’ as I drive into the Studio, which gets me a few cheers from the cold and tired writers and more than a few glares from the security guards. I proudly wear a ‘Support the Writers’ wristband and have succeeded in getting them on quite a few wrists in my hallway. I have a ‘Support the Writers’ sign pinned to the wall of my office, which gets its share of comments from the studio executives on the floor. It is not much, but I always hope that my small show of support might help the writers know that they are not alone.

I have talked to a few of the writers who struggle every day to remain hopeful. They have been at this quite a few months now and, with the powers-that-be avoiding the negotiating table, it has become harder to walk that picket line and hold onto the hope of a quick resolution. I have talked to one of the writers on those lines directly and have asked a few questions.

Annie DeYoung, writer of The Ron Clark Story (TNT) and the Disney Channel movies Return to Halloweentown and Johnny Kapahala: Back on Board, spends four out of five days on the picket line every week. She has shown her support and raised her voice at Union rallies and at a Los Angeles City Council Meeting. I asked her to quickly share with us an update directly from the picket line and have also asked her what support from fans has meant to her.

“The AMPTP (the Producers) would like people to believe that the writers are the ones depriving them of their television shows. Nothing could be farther from the truth. We are and always have been ready for fair negotiations toward a contract which will compensate us in a small way for what we create. We are ready and willing to go back to work, to create great film & television. But this strike is about preserving our livelihood. It is about being paid a decent wage so we can make our mortgage payments, our car payments, our children’s tuition. We’re working for a living just like everyone else in this country. Except we earn our living by creating television shows and films. A big part of our wages are paid in residuals when a show or movie we write is rerun. The problem is that the producers don’t want to pay us a fair rate when they rerun our shows on the internet. And, since the future of television is the internet, if the AMPTP has it’s way, soon we’ll get paid next to nothing for internet reruns and downloads, even as the studios and producing companies are raking in the profits. It is hard facing this day after day, but when we have the support of our families and our fans, it means a lot. Every little bit of support gives us the courage to continue to stand up for our rights.”

As someone who lives and works in Hollywood, I have found ways to show my support for Annie and the other writers on the picket line. If you would like to show your support to the writers and to let the producers know you do care about the material that is piped into your homes and cineplexes, here are a few websites that you can visit:

Strikeswag.com is a site that sells T-Shirts about the strike so you can show your support. All profits are donated to the Writers Guild Foundation Industry Support Fund to assist non-WGA members of the industry who are in financial distress as a direct result of the strike. Fans4writers.com is a site created by the fans. This site has downloadable banners for your MySpace and FaceBook pages and websites. It also has downloadable posters for your home or storefront windows, and many ideas on how you can help wherever you live.

These are just a few of the many sites out there that have been created to help show the support the writers need from both the Hollywood community and the community at large. As always, I remain hopeful that this strike will end in a fair and amicable manner so we can all get back to the business of making and watching wonderfully scripted entertainment.

The Valley Wire - 12/21 Column

Christmas in Tinsel Town
By Mary Beth Gentle

Christmas, Hollywood style. It’s that time of year when the overstuffed gift baskets and bottles of wine start pouring in like snow falling on the Prairies. Of course, for the row upon row of entertainment assistants sitting in the cubicles it’s more like snow falling on Hollywood Boulevard. Not going to happen. But, the flurry surrounding the ‘gift’ arrival is still exciting. For those of us sitting in our cubicles, we can hear the gift laden mail carts creaking down the hallway and one can’t help feeling like a little kid at Christmas. Is it going to stop at my office? Will it be for me?

Of course, when the mailroom kid does stop, it is only to have someone sign for the basket that gets added to the pile overtaking your boss’s desk. Which is really okay, because most of the time they will throw a basket or two your way to help spread the office Holiday cheer. And when you go home at the end of the day with your basket of gourmet food and you put your new bottle of ten dollar mustard next to your squeeze bottle of yellow store brand mustard you can’t help but catch some of that Holiday cheer yourself.

It only takes a few leftover gift baskets and before you know it that cheer is spreading throughout the cubicles in the office. People start wrapping their normally grey cubicle walls in Santa paper, stringing shiny gold garland around their IMacs and lighting up their fake pink sparkling Christmas trees. Even the really ‘cool’ Hollywood Assistants can’t help hanging a decoration or two. Because it is that time of year where the real work slows down and all of our energies shift to planning the Department Holiday party.

There are actual meetings about these events. There are budgets done, schedules are created, heck, I think they even make T-shirts. A lot goes into the planning of these productions, for a brief moment we all become crew members working on a very low budget movie. Because to those in the cubicles this could be the only Hollywood Christmas Party we get invited to.

As with any major Hollywood production, ideas start out really, really big. The excitement is everywhere when you hear that for five minutes the Holiday party might actually take place at Spago. I mean who would have thought that our little Holiday Party could be important enough to become a Spago event. For once I might actually be on the invite list for a party worth crashing. But, of course, when the budget is reviewed it becomes clear that Spago is not in our future. We quickly downgrade the plan to cocktails at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood. Which would still be okay, if it’s a good night we might even get to see Brittany take out a few Paparazzi’s.

But, when the ‘powers that be’ review the budget plan, reality really starts to sink in and the Accountants quickly inform us that our party will not take place at any trendy Hollywood hot spot, nor could it be downgraded to a ‘small but trendy’ spot on Ventura Boulevard in the Valley. We would, again, be holding our Holiday party in the Commissary, on a weeknight, after work.

There are a few moments of disappointment throughout the corridors, the ‘cool’ Hollywood Assistants even take their few Holiday decorations down in protest, but at the end of the day a party is still a party. And this is where the real movie making magic comes into play. Because the one thing Hollywood has always done right, they know how to put on a show. With a few calls to the Prop Department, the lighting Department and the gathering of a lot of Holiday Basket leftovers, a once dreary cafeteria is transformed into a Winter Wonderland for a terrific Holiday Party…Hollywood style.

I hope you all have a wonderful Holiday Season and I’ll be back after the New Year with an update on the Writers Strike with word directly from the Picket line. For now I’m off to enjoy my gift basket of gourmet food because after the New Year I’m back to Store brand delicacies and regular old commissary food. Happy Holidays from the Hollywood Cubicle!

The Valley Wire - 11/30 Column

My Hollywood Cubicle
By Mary Beth Gentle


The Valley Wire saved my life. That may sound a little on the dramatic side, but I honestly think it might be true. And normally, I would be the last person to believe that something as out of my realm as a local newspaper from Osceola, Wisconsin, could save the life of a single girl living ‘the dream’ in the glitz and glamour that is Hollywood California. But, that is the truth. The moment the latest edition arrives in the mail, I read it cover to cover.

I work at a major Movie Studio. And for many reading this, I am sure the thought of Hollywood life brings to mind things like; Film Premieres, Movie Stars, Outrageous Parties, Paparazzi, and oh, yes, the Glamour and Glitz. I am here to tell you, that only encompasses about five percent of the reality behind the Dream. And I am not saying that in an attempt to burst any bubbles. It is a fact. The majority of the cogs turning the wheels that run ‘Hollywood’ sit in grey cubicles surrounded by other grey cubicles, wondering if we will ever get our invite to the big Premiere party or if they will pass us by again.

It is a funny business. The Business of Hollywood. For one thing, not much of it actually takes place in Hollywood. The magic happens in very unglamorous places like Burbank and Culver City to name just a few. And the offices are filled with more accountants than filmmakers. A good reminder, that at the end of the day, it is a business.

I came to Hollywood to be a screenwriter. The guy in the cube next to me plans on directing one day. And just about everyone you meet believes that they would make a great producer. I still write. Everyday! The guy that wants to be a Director, is still out there raising money to shoot his short. And everyone I know is out there pitching a project to Produce. Because the one word that never makes it into the glitzy description of Hollywood is ‘Hope’. But, we all have it. It’s what keeps us here. It’s what brings new people to this industry everyday.

The longer you are here, the longer you will remain. Because that’s how they get you, you work on one movie, then the next and pretty soon you are hooked. It gets easier and easier to envision that your movie will be the next one to be made. Maybe right now you are just getting coffee or typing up script changes for someone else. But, the thing is, you are here. You are living the dream. Those of us that have been languishing in the same grey cubicles waiting for our big breaks, recite that line to ourselves several times a day. ‘I am living the dream. Oh yes. I am living the dream.’

I am hoping that with the help of the Valley Wire, maybe I can live the dream a little sooner than most. I am writing something that someone is reading. I hope you are anyway. And in return, a couple of times a month, I will get a glimpse into your world. And maybe we will see that our worlds are not so very different.


Right now, the world I live in is in Turmoil. We have entered into our fourth week of a Writer’s Strike. I am sure by now, many of you have heard of it, whether it was the celebrity appearances that made the Primetime news channel or the latest E! Hollywood update. Celebrities aside, it is important to remember that ninety-five percent of the writers on the picket line are just regular working people (who have a really cool job), working paycheck to paycheck and doing their hardest to make sure that they are being paid fairly for the work they do. It’s no different than any other unionized industry. Well, except Jay Leno probably doesn’t bring striking airline workers a box of doughnuts nor do you see striking city bus workers marching down Hollywood Boulevard. But other than that, it is pretty much the same. When negotiations fail, you go on strike.

Basically, negotiations have broken down over the financial formula that is used to pay writers a share of the DVD revenue and the fact that the writers are currently paid nothing for Internet and other Digital sales. It is only fair that the Writers should be guaranteed a fair percentage of the money the Studios make every year on DVD and Internet sales.

And, maybe I’m biased, because I have friends walking the picket lines, so it is affecting me on a personal level. But, the longer this strike goes on, the more people it will effect. And not just the other industries or the non-union staff people who will be out of work when production on TV show after TV show shuts down, it will start to effect you as well. Without the writers we will be faced with months of reality TV. And I don’t care what part of the country you live in, there is only so much humor a person can find in bad singing and dancing.

The writers are the people that dream up the stories, create the characters and write the dialogue that we all gather around our Televisions and computers to watch every week. They make us laugh, they make us cry, they create the characters that become ingrained in our culture. So, for this hopeful girl in Hollywood, sitting in her little grey cubicle, I am going to hope for a quick resolution to the Strike. And considering that this past Monday negotiations between the Writers and the Producers have finally resumed with talk of a positive result, maybe all that hope will pay off.

I look forward to sharing more moments from life in ‘Hollywood’ with all of you.

The Valley Wire

As some of you know, I have started writing a small entertainment column for a local Wisconson newspaper. Why a Wisconson Newspaper you may ask...well a good friend and fellow writer Garth Olson has started his own newspaper in the town of Osceola Wisconson. I was impressed from the first edition forward and was thrilled when he asked me to be a part of his endeavor. I have contributed to two issues so far (both posted here). And will post all future columns as they are printed.

This is not your normal Hollywood Entertainment column. I will not be writing about the latest Brittany Shennanigans nor will I have up to the minute coverage on the deals as they happen. This will be a column from the viewpoint of a tiny cog in the Hollywood wheel. I will try to give the folks of Wisconson and those reading this blog my view of life in Hollywood...for whatever that is worth.

Hope you enjoy.