EPISODE 7 JOURNAL TRANSCRIPT: ENTER THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
AUGUST 4, 2001, SATURDAY
I enjoyed coming home from Vegas, Nigel picked the perfect time before L.A. rush hour traffic and coming home to Bebbles and some weekend downtime. I got in the door and the dishwasher has busted and the shower was leaking. Welcome home!
Bebbles got stood up at a realtor’s viewing, so we have to take the L.A. flake-factor into consideration. We’re going to need more time. We’ll keep packing and not rush a decision until the fall.
After midnight, I went to turn on the light and read the L.A. Times, The Hollywood Reporter, and Variety. Bebbles asked, “You’re not turning on the light are you?” So what if I was? All he was doing was watching cartoons. Stone loves television I don’t get it. It’s a really big deal all the time and I could care less about the TV. Don’t turn on the light and ruin the ambience of the Cartoon Network. I compromised and read by candlelight.
As for moving, we’re looking in L.A. and the Valley. All of my business is in L.A., Stone’s business is mostly in the Valley. My only request of Stone, if that’s where he wants to move, is that he scout the places. First, I don’t know my way around the Valley except for a few major streets (Magnolia; Lankershim; Radford) – okay, make that several streets. Stone already works in the Valley so he can do a better job of scouting, if need be.
Stone has watched 13 hours of TV this Saturday – it’s 2 a.m. – so he must have had a stressful week when I was in Vegas. I love him, but don’t understand the TV vacuum. I cooked a great dinner. He’ll fall asleep in front of the TV, I’ll go to sleep later and it’ll be very anticlimactic. I’ve been pretty good – no arguments about it. Whatever, Baby.
AUGUST 11, 2001, SATURDAY
I worked in the Editorial Dept. of The Hollywood Reporter yesterday. I have to work there this Monday as well. I got the assignment through my agency – the Terrific Agency. I was working the switchboard in the newsroom, which is where editorial is. It’s only for two days and I accepted because I needed to take advantage of the opportunity to see the inner workings of a trade publication. Corrine, the agent who is finding her powers, forewarned me that it’s an intense environment and that if anyone there “gets a bug up under their hat, don’t take it personally.” Josie, the agency owner, gave me my supervisor’s last name so I’d know who to report to – it’s a Scandinavian name, I detected it right away – and, knowing that, I told her I’ll be able to handle whatever comes up. I am half-Icelandic after all.
AUGUST 12, 2001, Sunday
It’s cool up here in the hills as Stone as I plot the fall ahead. Stone is still contracting at PacifiCare and I’m on the fast track with my temp agency. I worked four days last week, the marketing firm and Friday at The Hollywood Reporter. I’ll book something else after Monday when my assignment at THR ends. I don’t want the agency calling and trying to book something while I’m in editorial. I don’t want to be disturbed there by my agents. I’m smack dab in the middle of an extremely busy newsroom, and I can’t take 5 minutes to book a job for myself, literally. I need to be able to return to the Reporter as a request client, if need be, and I need to keep my rep amongst the reporter.
Furthermore, I’m going to tell the Terrific Agency, personally, when I drop of my THR timecard on Monday night not to call me at all until Tuesday for a Wednesday gig. I’m an actor and want to return to acting jobs in the falls, so when I’m on these jobs I feel like a narc, that I’m totally undercover as to my real ambitions to not be on a computer or corporate environment at all. I’m dressed to the nines, generally handsome and polite, and I earn money to help run my household. I’ve gotten through some tight spots as a temp this summer and no one has really known I’m an actor, except for when they overhear me talking to another contractor on outside breaks who also happen to be in the business. One of the marketing firm guys, Liam, overheard me talking about filming “Man on the Moon” on a break with a contractor who is an out-of-work A.D., assistant director, and then the next day two other marketing staffers asked me about it. I downplay it because I’m a temp and it’s not like I’d want to be permanent at any of the places I’ve been. I’m there to make money to finance my next steps. I don’t really care for my acting career to enter the picture. It’s not like I can network or would even try in the corporate sphere.
The Hollywood Reporter is a hectic place and very demographically homogeneous, but the reporters are mostly polite and earthy. They’re on the clock like anybody else. Being a newsroom assistant, which is what I’m doing, is demanding there. You basically have to handle constant incoming calls, pitches, stories and IM quickly whoever needs it. One editor got mad at me because she claimed she’d been on hold for 3 minutes wanting to talk to an editor. That editor got mad and told my supervisor about it who then questioned the other assistant who trained me. I told the assistant who trained me, “If this is going to turn in to ‘blame the temp day’ then you can order someone else for this job.” A TV reporter, highly respected and around my age, smoothed the tension by coming up to me and saying, “It’s us, we’re crazy. It’s nothing you’re doing. You’re fine.” And the rest of the day was fine.
AUGUST 15, 2001, Wednesday
This is Karl, the temp extraordinaire. I’m on my 4th stint – the fourth – at the marketing firm, the fourth time in 2 ½ months. I make them a LOT of money. My specialty is out-bullshitting the oilman at 4 of the major oil companies. I really don’t bullshit them in a negative way, it’s all related to their business and how it relates to the marketing firm’s handling of their accounts, so there’s no way around it. I’m going to do what one of my oilmen said he was going to do: “de-brand.” I thought about my upward ascent as a contractor all summer and made four companies a lot of money. It’s been mutually beneficial, but they’ve gotten my money-making skills and I want to move on to more Industry-related work.
I just got a call that a mailroom guy at THR’s parent company got hurt and is out for two weeks. They called the Terrific Agency and asked if I could fill in. I said yes because I figure it will be 2 weeks only. I have to do it.
AUGUST 21, 2001, Tuesday
Sitting here writing at the Burger King across the street from The Hollywood Report on Wilshire Blvd. Yesterday was non-stop work in the mailroom where I assumed I’d be for the next 2 weeks. I got paired with Rico, a sharp worker who is an actor and filmmaker and could be a model himself. He’s very helpful, but he felt he had to test me at first. We were in the company van, making the first of many trips to the Post Office for the mail for an entire building of many magazines, including Billboard, Backstage West, Adweek, Mediaweek, Amusement News, The Hollywood Reporter. We were driving through Larchmont Village, and he rubbed his hands together and said, “You’re under my power now!” like a smooth Vincent Price, with a slight chuckle. “No, I’m not,” I said, looking out the window, as an afterthought. It was very Cagney & Lacey, except with two Black men, and we were fine after that, and he was great. This was all yesterday.
I got in today at 8:30 to the mailroom and another temp walked in the door. I don’t know how that got botched, but immediately Rico, the facilities manager and the guy who trained me in the newsroom all had an 8:35 a.m. huddle and I was transferred out of the mailroom and assigned to the newsroom for the next two weeks. It was just one day, but I can add mailroom worker to my Hollywood career. It was really nice of Rico to do and he’s very well-liked and esteemed, so I know his word carried a lot of weight. He as a positive attitude similar to mine and I see him a lot throughout the day when he’s in the newsroom or covering the THR lobby, which has its own constantly ringing phone and walk-ins both business and Industry, from musicians there for Billboard to directors or people who interview on site. Rico told me he started as a temp from when before Terrific changed hands over to Josie.
So, it’s the newsroom for the next two weeks. It’s a better job, but it’s not anywhere to be slipping. You have to be on it and I don’t get off until 8, which means I won’t get home until after 8 o’clock for the rest of the month. I like the job and the reporters, overall, are cool. The person I’m filling in for is well-loved and I’m a temp and not out for anyone’s job. Bebbles and I got a place – a great apartment with amenities, a hot tub, communal recreation room for gatherings, a pool, great security and not far from downtown. It’s great. I just need to work and pack.
AUGUST 22, 2001, Wednesday
I’m here at The Hollywood Reporter and have been told I’ll be here for the next two months. It’s been a crazy week with a lot of corporate shake-ups.
AUGUST 23, 2001, Thursday
It’s a quiet morning here so far at THR and I’m a little tired this morning, but I didn’t step or walk into any chaos in the newsroom – not that I’d care if I did. Being a temporary editorial assistant is just like being a traffic cop or director of traffic, just keep everything smoot and coming down the pike. It’s a brand that looks not unlike the very Industry this paper covers. Everyone is an adult about it and no one is disrespectful, but you can definitely tell I’m the Only Black Guy In The Office. My being here is definitely like running with a baton – whether I light the torch or not, at least I’m representing.
Nigel and I went out to The Gold Coast Bar to catch up and talk. That’s what we do, buy each other a round and catch up and talk. It’s great. Nigel is hilarious but can be pretty scathing with his words when provoked. This particular night, an older Black man, who was drunk off his ass, came over to where we were and said, “Heeeeeey you!” talking to me. “Go away!” Nigel ordered, clipped and so rude that I was shocked. A lot of those people remember me from the West Coast Playhouse down the street and so I don’t ever talk to people like that. The man looked hurt, bobbed and swayed, focused on David and said, “Did. You. Just. Tell. Me. To. Go. Awaaaay?”
“No,” Nigel lied. “I said, ‘Go play.”
“No you didn’t. You told me to go away! You wanna know something? I like you friend, he’s NICE! You, your just FAT!” “And you’re OLD!” Nigel said like a soap opera villain. Oh brother.
I talked to the man a little and gently redirected him to the back-room bar, like a guided toy sailboat.
On the way out, heading to Nigel’s car, I ran into a former corporate co-worker from the summer.
I said, “Hey Mark!” and he came over, drunk, and put his head on my chest when we hugged in greeting. He was in a sad mood.
“I hate my job,” he said, head still on my chest, into my shirt. He hates my former supervisor and said, “I do not to talk about work – at all.” I said, cool.
“Let’s go to FUBAR!” Mark exclaimed, bumping into men on Santa Monica Blvd. and sucker-pinching one unsuspecting man’s nipples. I bid him farewell like we’d had a classy night out, like he was fine, to not bring any attention to his current state.
AUGUST 27, 2001, Monday
Aaliyah, the R&B/pop singer and rising film start died in a plane crash on Saturday in the Bahamas. I got the report in the newsroom yesterday on a Sunday shift. It was tragic, depressing and struck everyone numb. I got her “One In A Million” CD for Valentine’s Day in 1997 from my ex. Her latest CD is only 5 weeks old. She had a pretty, sweet voice and was on the A-list completely having just wrapped the film adaptation of Anne Rice’s “Queen of the Damned” as Akasha and she was due to star in “The Matrix” sequels. She was 23. A tragic loss of here and 8 other people in a Cessna 402. They’d only gotten 200 feet into the air, and they crashed; she died instantly. She sang like an angel; now she is one. It’s a terrible loss. It’s just so sad; the kind of event, albeit a most tragic one, that makes you realize that however life is treating you, you have it good, because you are alive.
Leaving the newsroom to catch my bus on Wilshire there was a bench billboard with her new album as the banner ad and someone wrote in fat marker: “We Will Miss You <3’ and I think that says it best.