Soooo cute

I'm staying at my best friend's house in San Jose while we do sound in Emmeryville, and she's six months pregnant with her first child. A daughter. Name has changed a few times, so no working title right now. Anyway, she is so cute...all morning she's been going through boxes nesting, totally single focused...I want to hire her to come do my house!

And no, I have no biological urges to have a baby watching her. I'm a total freak of nature. But I'm stoked to be an aunt again!

Here's the rub

LA industry is sooooo incestuous that every guy I know works in the film industry and wants to keep our relationship either a friendship or a real boyfriend/girlfriend thing because they want to work with me in the future and they get how hard it is for women to emotionally disconnect and have just casual sex. Being respected and adored and expected to succeed by my male friends is very flattering...and can be a bitch.

Just got back from an ADR session with Dave and Chauntal, followed by me going to Blockbuster to hit on the witty flirty check out guy. He wasn't working. And the hot guy in the parking lot whose eyes bugged out when he saw me drove off too fast for me to ask him out. Damn, you menfolk keep missing out! Seriously, if you see a woman who looks like a coked-up Jessica Rabbit wandering around LA staring at men's crotches this afternoon, you MIGHT want to take your lunch break and take her home right now...she really needs you to be good to her...

Guh!

Got shot down on 2 different booty calls last night (still haven't picked a boyfriend, so trying to play it safe emotionally). The 24 year old didn't respond, and the hot smart one I almost dated in January (who stood me up for our first date - twice) was busy with taxes and putting his kid to bed and was really worried we'd end up hurting each other emotionally. Probably true. I just couldn't have cared less. Just wanted to hook my leg around his shoulder.

Ack ack ack.

I leave at 2 pm to go back up north into sound and color correction sessions all week, and I'm a walking mess. I don't know how you guys got anything done in your early 20s. Life is the pits when you actually NEED sex and can't get it.

I can't concentrate at all, and if someone said "boo" to me right now, I'd jump ten feet like a cartoon character. Can you actually see me vibrating with nerves and anxiety over the web? I bet you can. Only the most important week of my life and I'm fucked now in the wrong way...

Oh, and Captain Awesome/Mr. Tumnus?

Got up the balls to call him this weekend in San Diego. His phone is disconnected.

You missed seeing me sob the way I did when I mom died.

Magic!

Today is the three year anniversary of my blog, and the day I'm hitting 100,000 hits.

Thanks all for your friendship and ears. I've appreciated being heard.

And I still miss mom.

Tell me what you don't like about yourself

There hasn't been one episode of fifth season Nip/Tuck I haven't wanted to blog after, but I've refrained as I only know writers who are watching it.

There's a really good reason for this.

I often get asked if I can still enjoy film and tv now that I know storytelling structure too well...I've seen behind Oz's curtain...

And often, the answer is no. Not because I can't be swept away still, but because what I see the most often is LAZY WRITING.

Lazy. Writing.

Boring. Trope-filled. Hackneyed. Cloying. Third draft. Obvious. Predictable. Cliche-filled choices. Agenda-pushing. Not-aware/responsible-for-writer's-own-prejudices. Lazy. Writing.

Look. A good film script takes a minimum of a year to write. A "good" one. Because it takes THAT many drafts to fix the above issues. Pistoleras is a great, award-winning script. That I spent two years and 16 drafts and two live readings on.

Writing is rewriting. Not regurgitation, not therapy, not picking the easy way out. And throw in a deep, abiding curiousity for the philosophical whys of human nature. There's a small number of people who have these skills and interests, and a large number of people calling themselves screenwriters.

It's particularly hard to find great TV writing because of the time crunch involved in creating TV. But in the last decade with the advent of auteur-led shows with less episodes... you know my feelings about some of the greatest works of art showing up on cable. FX in particular has championed audacious, balls to the wall artists.

So....

Nip/Tuck.

Poor, misunderstood, red-headed step child Nip/Tuck.

I get that you don't get it. That you think it's too much. Trashy. Just trying to be shocking for shock's sake. Crude. Focused on superficialty. They've even joked about it in their series tagline: The deeply superficial series returns.

No.

It's not true. That's an embarrassingly supereficial reading of what's at play here.

The level of craft that goes into this show astounds me every week. The interest and compassion in unlikeable human behavior. And what they've built into their mythology...

I firmly believe it's a show by writers for writers, and I am grateful for it.

Doubtful that Dirt and The Riches and Breaking Bad would exist without our McNamara/Troy antiheroes charging the way.

I have never seen an episode where showrunner Ryan Murphy and particularly writer/producer Jennifer Salt didn't take a plotline to the negation of the negation. I won't bore you explaining that Robert McKee technique here, but trust me, almost no one is brave and skilled enough to do it. And they have done it every episode for five edgy seasons.

Five seasons of surprising me in every episode. I always guffaw. I always drop my jaw in horror. Nod my head. Even the "bad" episodes. Smile at a universal truth about humans. Reversal after reversal, never the easy uneducated choice. Brilliant.

So here's the deal.

I don't care that you don't know the characters or their intricate backstories. If you have even a cursory interest in storytelling, watch this week's episode. It's the season finale called "Candy Richards", named for the great guest star character Jennifer Coolidge plays. Oh yeah. Watch it for the astonishing world-class acting, directing and editing, too.

It's an astounding work of art. Go bask in it, on whatever level you can find enjoyment. Please? For me? Because I love it and you so?



"Engrossing and utterly fearless..." - USA Today

Emmy and Golden Globe nominations. Won best series Golden Globe in 2005.
WGA nomination 2006 for Jennifer Salt for episode "Rhea Reynolds".

"Big -- reveling in the excessive and grandiose...It's the most watched scripted show in basic cable of all time." - Variety

Love at first sight?

Hey, how many of you out there believe in LAFS? I actually do, and have some theories behind it.

Now mind you, I also believe LAFS may totally be caused by instantly recognizing someone who has all the bad patterns and button pusher issues you're working on, which is why many psychologists kindly suggest running away screaming from LAFS and dating someone you're NOT attracted to...

Okay, here's the mulling I've been doing the last few weeks. There was this fantastic "House" episode about a Hassidic Jew who married his wife the day he met her. And one of his amazingly thoughtful defenses of the practicality of this tradition was asking the short bald doctor (sorry can't remember his name!) if he loved his wife, and the response was essentially "as much as the day I met her" followed by his look of shock and conceding that HJ just won the argument. Because that is the way we speak about love in our culture. Not about it growing, but if we're lucky enough to maintain it at that fresh intense level of the first day.

Does this make sense? I wish I was just speaking this instead of typing...

So anyway, then I started thinking about all the great friends I've had in my life. And male or female, I almost without exception knew the day that I met them. Same thing. Just that big ch-chunk thunk Law and order noise of a puzzle piece falling into place. Instant comfort, instant kin. If anything, as I've gotten older I've become even more adept at recognizing my soulmates, no matter what the relationship. So why wouldn't it be the same for a sexual partner?

Hmmmmn...more to chew on this weekend while I'm at an exciting conference in San Diego learning about men's relationship to sex and love.

First time I've been in San Diego since Captain Awesome eviscerated my heart in July...wow I've come a long way since then in knowing who I am and what I want and what behavior is unacceptable to me and in astronomically loving men more in general. Even so, hard not to think of Mr. Tumnus with the kind eyes and mad kissing skills and what it would be like if he kissed me elsewhere. I'd probably black out.

I think I'm going to hide my cell phone so I don't call him, and spend the weekend flirting with other San Diego men. See what comes of that. Perhaps San Diego is on some kind of leigh line of soulmates for me, and I'll effortlessly hone in on one who's ready to see me for a SECOND date...

Heads up!

If you saw The Police on tour last year, odds are good you were forced to buy a Police membership for $100...and agreed to an "evergreen" contract that automatically renews that $100 membership on the same credit card used to purchase the tickets UNLESS you go before it's too late and cancel your membership at thepolice.com

God dammit

The incessant helicopters have started.

Oscar week is a war zone in Hollywood, and I am a huuuuge anti-noise pollution person. Drives me nuttier than usual.

Only five more days to live through...

J'accuse

AOL, of all places, calls foul on the double standard of female vs. male partying portrayals. Hmmmmn. And obviously, yes.

Der.

My bigger interest is in what agenda it's serving the Murdoch-owned, porno-owning AOL conglomerate to bring up media sexism as a news topic....what are they up to exactly? Murdoch is one of the biggest proponents of the schizm between the sexes...so why is big brother lulling us to sleep on this..."Don't worry kids, we've noticed you've noticed, now drink your Kool Aid and take a nap while the adults handle the problem..."

I feel an ugly checkmate coming on...

UPDATE: ha haaaa...whoa, not AOL. New York Times article. Ah so.

Now I'm wondering what feisty content picker at AOL is being fired at this moment for slipping it through...

Where's Marion?

She's aged better than all y'all anyway. Give a dame some credit.

Come on guys. Didn't need 3 hot shots of Cate. We want to see the female archetype we loved.

Join me!

Take the 21 day challenge! I'm wearing my Pistoleras bracelet instead.

Don't miss!!!!

Tuesday, Oprah, Gavin DeBecker is back!!!! My favorite man in the world, and next to my male gynecologist and a male mentor/Professor at UCLA, the most actively feminist/humanist person I know.

Sigh. If only I could find more female feminists. Though I do love fighting alongside my awesome men. You get how amazing Todd and Charles are too, right?

Oh, and here's a great dating tip for LA singletons...

Gilliam update

God bless that poor poor man. I'll go see whatever movie he makes. Twice.

How classy was Daniel Day Lewis last night? Wonderful.

V day present

This item made me laugh.

Big Bro

Check him out, all cool on video and all!

More rental

Eastern Promises took foooooorever to get to Viggo's nude fighting scene, and then...meh. Much cooler in my head, and not edited to be so careful not to show him. Think male bathers in Room With a View.

Eight minutes into Shoot 'Em Up and I'm loving it. Finally! Something original with a POV! 2007 was a tough, tough year for movielovers. A lot of mediocrity that was praised to the heavens.

Awwwwwkward

Just got asked out by my fifty-something mailman. He wanted to know if I'd go with him to his Philipino homeland in March for a week. I told him I had a boyfriend and he still asked if I wanted to drink wine with him on Saturday. Very sweet man, I hope it won't be a problem that he knows where I live and delivers my mail every day.

I'm always amazed at how optimistic men are about who they should be with. Women really aren't like that, much more realistic and grounded. I've noticed that on Match.com too.

It's shocking how many men in their late 30s put that they want a real relationship, then make the age range of their partner twenty to thirty (they often pick a number 3-6 years younger than theirs as the cutoff). There's something seriously wrong with you if you won't consider dating someone your own age, and see nothing unappealing about stating that publicly. Therapy!

Dang Blog

My own blog won't let me make comments. No wonder y'all get so upset.

Geez it's a cold night here in LA!

Chauntal Lewis, PR Pro

Our lead female actor in The Commune is the cover model on the number-one-selling weekly women's magazine. Pick it up in your local grocery or drug store in the check out line!

Woman's World, January 28 2008.

Great googly moogly

Yeah, I just shed a tear. It wasn't for Heath Ledger.

It was for Terry Gilliam.



That poor, poor man. Yeah. According to IMDB Pro (ahem, perhaps that journalist should invest in the monthly fee?), Heath is indeed the lead and they are not done finishing.

I don't even know what to say. I feel like we should all sign a giant internet card "Please Mr. Gilliam, don't quit making movies. Please."

Sigh.

Hmmmm...

From Variety:

Similarly, the writers included several Oscar frosh, including Sarah Polley (“Away From Her”), Diablo Cody (“Juno”), Nancy Oliver (“Lars and the Real Girl”) and Tamara Jenkins (“The Savages”). Except for Jenkins, it’s the first produced feature script for each. This marks the first time four women have been nommed solo in the script categories...

The 2007 lineup of films is another reminder of the key role festivals are playing in the Oscar race. “No Country” and “Diving Bell” debuted at Cannes; “Away From Her” and “Michael Clayton” at Toronto; “Atonement” at Venice, “La Vie en Rose,” Berlin; “Juno” and “Into the Wild” at Telluride (followed by Toronto, Rome, etc.)

Good for the women. And re: The Commune and festivals...look at the above list and please stop asking me if we're going to be in those festivals. Sorry kids, they ain't for indies made on credits cards. They're for movies made by Miramax with stars. Different definition of "indie."

Re: Heath Ledger dead, what the hell? Drugs? Foul play? Perhaps something that will actually effect the cold, unempathetic hearts of the Facebook Gen?

Batman was done shooting, right? Man, my second thought was those producers just hit the effing jackpot. That movie is going to be huge. Think of all the unearned sympathy/attention around The Crow, and that was just unknown questionably talented Brandon Lee...

Yet more TV

We live in a charmed age.

AMC has done it again with "Breaking Bad". Fabulous. And John Toll DPing? Better than we deserve.

Oh, and if you missed "Mad Men", you don't have to rent it...they started the season over, Sunday midnight.

You so wish you were me

I'm on my awesome couch in my silk robe eating Panda Express drinking Pelligrino and watching "Big Trouble in Little China."

Feels good.

Satellite of Alcoholics

Well, the title is self-explanatory. Don't know how or why it's so predominate in my life, but there it is.

I don't know how to help you. But I'll try. And I love you.


This is where Dr. Drew says to start. So let's try it.

Emperor has no Cloverfield

Great Saturday night date movie. All the enjoyables.

Buuuuut...

Queasy-cam...if I couldn't stomach Bourne-whatever, then you know my feelings.

And my crush on writer-god Drew Goddard is well-established in these pages, so I don't feel guilty in saying...

HOW IS IT THAT NO ONE HAS NOTICED THE SPINE IS CRIBBED FROM "MIRACLE MILE"?

I mean, excellent, Goddard has great taste, Miracle Mile is in my top 20. (And I force people to view it all the time...if I haven't made you, then I probably don't like you.)...but give a little credit to a fucking masterpiece where credit is due.

My jaw was ALREADY on the ground at all the exact plot point poaching before Goddard had the temerity to steal the damn classic ending.

Balls, man.

Brass. Clanking. Balls.

At least "Disturbia" proclaimed its "homage."


So in honor of the raped and discarded: Steve De Jarnatt.

You're amazing. Get back on that feature film horse.
Oh, and "Irrestible" is the finest monster X-Files ep, so thanks for that too, man.

See? Giving credit and thanks.

It's easy.

So help me god

I'm laughing phlegmy, hacking chuckles at Hot Rod, and I don't think I can blame it all on being loopy from cough syrup.

Ian McShane: Well, maybe you should have thought of that before you decided to suck at being a man all your life.

Oh my god, I just snorted while I was typing it.

And THEN the Footloose montage in the Redwoods....ohhh, ow, my chest hurts. I hope this movie keeps it up, I'm really enjoying the first act. Tears of shame.

Please help real women make it onscreen...

Here's an email from Rebecca Field;
ass-kicker extraodinaire and Heidi Hornbacher's cousin. She's representing real-sized, awesome women dating hot hot men on TV show October Road.

There are two things you can do to support her/us/women:

1. Watch Tonight, Monday, ABC, 10pm/9 central
2. Pass on this post and/or her email

It's time to change body image perceptions!!!

Also, I LOVE this article about her:
"TV Actress Weighs in on Hollywood, Body Image"

Hey Guys,

So....we all know that this is my weekly thing....my reminder, my plea, whatever you call it!

Just wanted to let you know that tonight is THE BIG night for Janet and Eddie, if you know what I mean (wink, wink)....you probably shouldn't miss it....but for all the parents out there, keep and eye blocker near by, there may be some skin....not too much though, it is ABC, network television after all!

We really need your help tonight though, our ratings have been down a bit and I just know we have fans out there and that we can really rock it....so please, please, tune in, tell your friends, family, everyone and ask them to tell their friends......

Tonight, Monday, ABC, 10pm/9 central.

There is a 'dual' between my co-star Geoff Stults and I on EW.comas well, top 5 love scenes, we each picked our tops and you can go vote! So check that out if you can. Also on ABC.com, the cast of "O-Road" answers questions from the fans, a new couple cast members each week, this past week it was 'Big Cat' and 'Hannah', so go see that video on the homepage.

Anyway, enough of my shameless promoting and soliciting of your help.....

Hoping each and everyone of you are well!

Love and Gratitude,

Rebecca ;0)

Postsecret

Here's two that could have been mine.

The Jerk

Don't know how I made it so long without seeing this movie. Verrrrry funny.

Here's a great part of Bernadette Peters and Steve Martin's characters falling in love. In case my neighbors were wondering why I was laughing like a hyena.

STEVE: Can I ask you a personal question?

BERNADETTE: What is it?

STEVE: Now be totally honest. You do have a boyfriend, don't you?

BERNADETTE: Kind of.

STEVE: I know this is our first date, but...do you think the next time you make love to your boyfriend......you could think of me?

BERNADETTE: I haven't made love to him yet.

STEVE: That's too bad. Do you think it's possible that......someday......you could make love with me and think of him?

BERNADETTE: Who knows? Maybe you and he can make love and you could think of me.

STEVE: I'd just be happy to be in there somewhere.


:)

Weighing in

Straight from Carson Kressley's lips:

"Zero isn't a size, it's a warning sign."

"When you think you are a 10, you are a 10."

Amen, sister.

Aaaaamazing

TV was ON FIRE last night with purpose and excellence. You must watch, in this order of importance:

1. Ugly Betty - "Zero Worship" Written by Dawn Dekeyser
2. 30 Rock - 2.10 Written by Robert Carlock & Donald Glover
3. Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew - "Pilot"
4. Grey's Anatomy - "Lay Your Hands on Me" Written by Allan Heinberg

And don't forget "How to Look Good Naked" tonight, Episode 2.


I come to you now at the turn of the tide...can you feel it?

The real secret

"There are no real secrets to success. Success in anything has one fundamental aspect - effort. Take action with commitment."
- Sam Parker

Freebies

Yet another internet thingie I didn't know existed. Here's a fine example by reader Owl Hat.

Diet secret

I've had a bunch of people ask me how I've lost weight the last six months, and I've sidestepped the question because the answer was indelicate and I feared how it would reflect on me. But in the interest of truth and anthropological reporting:

I lost weight because I was happy because I was having great sex with someone who accepted me as I was, inspiring me to the confidence to feel sexy as I was.

So get the loving and self acceptance at whatever weight you or your partner is at NOW, and then get to the McLovin' and then losing weight will just be another pleasant side effect of being glowy and happy all the time instead of the obstacle keeping you from being loveable.

Dating from A to Z

Ha ha ha ha haha ha hahaaaaa! ...that's for you, Brenda. :)

I love you.


Poached!

In praise of the writer

Check out David Effin' Milch's WGA lecture series. Yowza.

And it has not gone unnoticed amongst savvy screenwriters like Shawna Benson and the rest of us starving for adoration that the Katherine Heigl rom-com 27 Dresses launched a poster and TV campaign "from the screenwriter of The Devil Wears Prada." Progress! We'll take the crumbs. For now.

I don't get it

Do guys really think beards look and feel good? They're terrible to kiss, and I think they look goofy. I can't think of anyone I like better with one. Thoughts?

It's a lie

By the way, in case you didn't get the point of the Naked post, it's patently not true that female actors have to be a certain weight to look "Fuckable" on camera.

There is no reason other than misogyny for Keira Knightley to look like a concentration camp survivor and be praised in magazines like Entertainment Weekly for her high "style" in "Atonement."

If you doubt me, go back and look at her six pack in her breakout film "Bend it Like Beckham." Back when her starving body hadn't consumed all of its own muscle tissue.

Time's up, people. Get on board the truth train.

Because the next stop is sexual agency, where it doesn't matter if a lead female character is "Fuckable" or not.

Usurp this gaze, fuckers.

Rain

Not a big fan of this.

How to Look Good Naked

This show is absolutely revolutionary. It makes me glad to be alive.

4 out of 5 women hate their bodies.

I can't emphasize how women seeing themselves as worthy of love just as they are can change the world. It lets them become shiny and lovely and share that beauty with everyone around them. It's important for all of us.

I'm so proud of Carson Kressley. What a lovely soul. Great, great show. Made me teary and produced instant results in the woman featured and all the people who saw her confidence.


So here's yet another Commune story I've withheld...

I'm naked in the film, for a very specific reason. When we figured out how fast we were going to shoot, I could have gone on a typical actor diet and lost two sizes to be in an "acceptable" female actor range. But instead producer Heidi and star Chauntal and I had a sit-down, and I asked for future support knowing I how I was going to be attacked, and we decided I was going to stay a size 14 (the average size of women in America) and have a knock-down sexy naked sex scene.


Of course, by the time shooting was done I was so stressed I couldn't keep weight on, and was down to a 12 by the time we shot the scene with Trevor. And now in Post-production I'm a 10. Keep in mind, beautiful Kate Winslet was an 8 in Titanic when she was eventually hounded into losing another 35 pounds.

Here's the part where we've ALL been brainwashed by the media, and we decided to use my body as a tool to start undoing it.

Watching the rough cut of The Commune with Chauntal's male 29 year old friend, he saw the pool scene where I walk out of it wet, anonymously naked, as a size 14. He piped up in his outraged Brooklyn accent "Who put Kathy Bates in the film?"

Chauntal patted my leg and shook her head, and we said nothing as my heart sank to my feet.

Theeeen when we got to my character's sex scene and he found out this cut did NOT include my nudity, he was outraged and wanted to see it RIGHT NOW. And then said I could do a sex scene in his next movie, and showed me the last model-thin girl who'd done some kind of doggie-style sex scene in some short he directed for Youtube. Which was definitely in his mind a compliment to me, and something he was proud of and wanted me to be a part of.

So with sexy glamorous clothes on, in my full confidence, doing a slow sensual dance with a hot specimen of a man lusting after me onscreen, I was completely desirable. Different context, same body, same viewer thinking he should or shouldn't be attracted to my body.

Sooooo interesting. Don't think THAT's not going into the press release.

And a new pick-up line was established: "Elisabeth, step out of a pool naked for me."

Little flutter of hope

Can feel the wings beating in my fangirl heart...

Ah, don't betray me...If the Avengers stinks...

Fascinating

I have to see this!

Also of interest, although in general I find alchoholism boring and weak. Actually, all the vices people fall into and their subsequent dramas don't interest me. Sorry.

So lucky am I!!

Are you all having a blast in 2008? I hope you are. Take a few minutes to realize how scrumptious life is, and how truly blessed we are. What a joy! What an exciting time to be on the planet!

Geekogasms

Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhh...

Why did I book all of today? stupid...