Hollywood Works Out
By Mary Beth Gentle
Spring has arrived in Hollywood and all the ‘A’ Lister’s are prepping their minds and bodies for the summer. They have their personal chefs blending up their protein shakes. They have their personal assistants scouring the shops along Rodeo Drive for the perfect summer beachwear. And they are spending quality time in their private gyms with their personal trainers. And those of us in the Hollywood cubicles are no different.
Well…okay…we are a little different. Our personal chefs work in the Studio Commissary, we shop at the local Target for our summer fashions and we tune into the Biggest Loser for our personal training sessions. But, this year things are going to be a little different for this cube dweller, I nabbed the golden ticket and was one of the lucky few to be awarded entrance to the brand new Studio Gym. It has state of the art equipment, flat screen televisions and on the plus side it is completely affordable.
A lottery was held and only a limited number of employees were accepted to the new gym. So already, in typical Hollywood fashion, it has become a gym for the elite few and a waiting list of over seven hundred has been formed. Normally, I would be against such elitism and shout from the rooftops that it is unfair to the masses. But, this time around, for the first time in all my years working at the different Studio Lots – I have made the ‘A’ list for something!
Having spent so many years on the ‘B’ or ‘C’ lists I played it very cool in the cubicle hallways as not everyone who entered the lottery in my area made it in. It was hard not be giddy when I came back from my tour of the new gym. It was hard not to be giddy when one of the senior executives in the area did not make it into the gym. It was hard not to be giddy the first morning I went to the gym for my workout. I think I did a pretty good job at not outwardly displaying my excitement.
But, as with all things, there are always strings attached. There are always great insights to be learned when you see life on the other side of the tracks. And I quickly learned that life on the gym ‘A’ list was not as easy as it seemed. Because everyone wants to be on the ‘A’ list, you have to work extra hard to stay there or get booted off. And that was when the other shoe fell, it was announced that you had to go a required number of times a week in order to keep your gym membership or you would be booted and someone from the waiting list would move into your spot.
And suddenly life on the ‘A’ list was not so glamorous after all. If I was going to stay on that list I was going to have to work for it. I was going to have to get to work extra early or stay extra late to get that work out in if I was going to keep my good standing. And in the beginning I was okay with that. I got here, I did my workout, it felt good. Then I did the one thing I shouldn’t have done, I started to wonder who was going to the gym during the non-work hours. Who was there at eleven in the morning? Who was there at three in the afternoon? And that was when I realized that maybe I wasn’t so elite after all. The executives that can schedule their own time and go to the gym whenever they wanted, were really the elite ‘A’ Lister’s and I was merely ‘A’ list filler.
So, even though the bloom is off the rose, I am going to stay with my gym membership. I am going to continue to get up early to do my workout. And even though I don’t have a personal chef, I don’t shop on rodeo drive and I don’t have a personal trainer sculpting my body, I am getting in shape and those ‘Target’ fashions are going to look great this summer!
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