Emmys 2011

Michelle is awesome.

In other news, we watched the Emmys tonight.  She came over and watched them with Brian and me, so I guess that was actually a pretty decent opening.

Here are some of the pros and cons of the evening, assuming that A, you didn't watch it or B, you give a crap what I have to say about it.

The Pros:

• Jane Lynch (Sue Sylvester from Glee if you are stupid enough not to know her) hosted and she was phenomenal!  I sure do love that lesbian!  Her opening musical number featuring lots of stars from popular TV shows was very funny, as was her bit as a Jersey housewife.  And I disagree with the characters from The Big Bang Theory because I would LOVE IT if spontaneous musical numbers passed through my apartment!
• Apart from Glee, my favorite television show is Modern Family and I was very happy that both Julie Bowen and Ty Burrell won for their roles as Claire and Phil Dunphy!  Oh, and Ty's speech was very funny!  I'm also happy to say that Modern Family took home an award for Best Direction, Best Writing and for the second year in a row they've won Outstanding Comedy Series!
• The Emmytones (a group of actors who sang little doo-wop songs) were pretty cute.  But I really loved the performance by The Lonely Island featuring Michael Bolton and Akon!  So hilarious, especially when they started grinding on poor William H. Macy!
• Matt LeBlanc (of Friends fame) has gray hair now.  I didn't know this.  He looks really good with gray hair!
• The nominees for Best Actress in a Comedy Series, starting with Amy Poehler, all ran up on the stage when their names were called... and it had all of us laughing.  Melissa McCarthy (who I love most for her role in the movie Bridesmaids, although she was nominated for her TV show Mike and Molly) won and I was very happy about it!  They gave her flowers and a crown just like she won Miss America or something.  Even backstage that woman would not take off her crown!
• Although I've never seen Boardwalk Empire or Mildred Pierce, I was happy that Martin Scorsese and Kate Winslet won awards... mostly because they are awesome and deserve it.  And did Kate Winslet look sexy tonight or what?  Loved that red dress!

The Cons:

• Some dresses were less than spectacular tonight.  Let's not lie.  Gwyneth Paltrow, Katie Holmes, Drew Barrymore, Amy Poehler and even Julianna Margulies wore some pretty ridiculous dresses.  I thought Amy Poehler was going scuba diving and Gywneth Paltrow was suddenly a belly dancer...
• Sofia Vergara's new hair color.  What was she thinking?
• Charlie Sheen.  SHUT UP ALREADY!

Wizard Week: The Twins Talk Acting

The Guardian recently featured an interview with James and Oliver Phelps who play Fred and George Weasley in the Harry Potter movies.

SPOILER ALERT:  If you haven't read the books, stop reading!

While the Weasley twins are usually used as comic relief, Deathly Hallows puts them in some serious situations.  In Part 1, George lost his ear in a Death Eater attack.  And in Part 2, Fred will die. Oliver Phelps, who plays George, said, "It was horrible," when asked what it was like pretending his brother was dead.  "I was trying to get myself into this emotional state. You had to put yourself in character, and seeing your brother lying there, pale, was quite hard. I think we did about four takes."

Luckily his brother isn't really dead!  Although I'm sure life would be nicer at times if Oliver didn't have a twin brother.  Sometimes it's hard to be seen as an individual.  They are both trying to further their acting careers, but they don't always want to do things as a duo.  "We want to continue acting but not necessarily together," says James. "We've had a few meetings with casting agents in the States but there is a perception that we come as two. I said I want to do individual stuff and one guy just said 'Oh no, I don't see that happening'. I shut off as soon as he said that, I wasn't interested."

I feel a little guilty that I always refer to them as "the twins" all the time.  I don't even know which one is which.  But even though they resent being seen as a combined unit, they don't regret being cast as the mischievous duo in Harry Potter.  James says, "I'm very aware that I'm lucky to call it my job."

Fred and George Weasley.
Promotional image for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2.

Like a Kindergartner All Over Again...

Hey World!  This is just a quick little post to talk about how much fun I had working as an extra yesterday!

First off, I was really nervous.  Kinda like that first day of school nervous, when you are pretty sure that you will not have the same shoes as the cool kids... embarrassed that your crayons are not Crayola but the cheapy RoseArt ones... you know what I mean.  Luckily, I quickly met some really fun and welcoming people and I soon began to feel at ease.  Sure they teased me for bringing the biggest suitcase to the set, but it didn't matter because I had made friends!  These new friends were Vanessa and Aman, and the three of us did pretty much everything together all day.  Except bathroom breaks.  Those were done in private.

You're probably wondering why I brought a big ol' suitcase to work.  Well, we were all playing travelers for the television show "The Event."  That's about all I can say about the show.  Sorry.  But it was really fun walking around and joking with Vanessa and Aman in the background all day... and getting paid to do it!

And Brian wasn't lying about the amazing free food!  Just heaps and heaps of deliciousness!

Extra! Extra!

First off, I want to brag about how talented my Brian is.  He only joined Marjorie Ballentine's acting class two weeks ago, and she's already talking about switching him from the Monday beginner class to the Wednesday advanced class.  She told him this after he finished delivering a spectacular monologue this week.  His next assignment is to do a scene with another actor.  Sometime this week he needs to get together with her and rehearse.  I hope he can find the time!

You see, Brian's suddenly a busy guy!  Through his temp agency, he has been placed into a part-time data entry job with an auto dealer in Santa Clarita.  It doesn't pay very well, but a perk is that he can work whenever he wants, as long as he gets in twenty-four hours a week.  So it's very flexible for an aspiring actor.  And when he isn't working there he's working as a background actor, commonly known as an extra.  He's signed up with Central Casting, and he's starting to get gigs pretty frequently.

Being an extra has got to be the easiest job in the world.  From what I understand, Brian will be sitting in the holding area for hours at a time getting paid to just sit there and eat all of the free food.  And when they finally need the extras on set, he just goes out there and has pretend conversations in the background.  Then he comes home with a hundred dollars or more!  Most shoots run about twelve hours, and they pay over-time for anything above eight.  Essentially, what Brian makes in a week at his "real" job, he can make in a long day of being an extra.

And on top of all that, he gets to see celebrities! Unfortunately, I've been told not to name any names or we'd be sued for three million dollars.  I don't have three million dollars, so I'll keep quiet.  But just know that he's met several people that have made me very jealous.  He's seen television actors, movie actors, theater actors, and even an Olympian.

So the question is:  Why am I not an extra?

The Space

I have some exciting news to report on Brian's quest to make it big in Hollywood!  He has found himself an acting teacher... and a good one at that.  Her name is Marjorie Ballentine and she has taught some awesome actors, including none other than Gary Oldman (aka Sirius Black for you Potter nerds out there).  On her site, Oldman is quoted saying, “Marjorie has helped me enormously … renewed in me a passion for the work. She’s honest, wise, insightful, and caring – and the closest thing to Adler out there.”  He's referring to the late Stella Adler, of course, the famous stage actress who introduced America to the Konstantin Stanislavski method of acting.

Brian went to his first class on Monday at a place called "The Space," just as an observer, and he liked what he saw. "I was itching to act," he said, "to start working as an actor."  I hope she can help him scratch that itch!  They spoke at the break, and all the details of payment and whatnot were hammered out.  He's supposed to have a monologue ready for class next week.  He's been working on one from a play called The Author's Voice and he sounds amazing!  She also challenged the class to read some Arthur Miller plays so Brian and I did some reading at a Barnes & Noble today.  I started reading After the Fall and he began with Death of a Salesman.  We'll switch when we are done.

It was also great for Brian to meet some fellow actors.  He ran into a guy who said that he recognized Brian.  Surprising since we just moved here!  But after talking a bit it was revealed that the guy was from Utah, and both he and Brian had auditioned for the same role once at the Egyptian Theater in Park City.  The other kid got the part, but he remembered Brian's audition and the fact that Brian had played Tobias in Sweeney Todd at the same theater.  Pretty cool coincidence, huh?