The Simple Joy of Attending The Hollywood Show

CLICK ON THE ABOVE YOUTUBE VIDEO AND READ ON ….

If you have the luxury of living within driving distance of the Burbank Marriott then you know that attending every show becomes a part of your life. And, one of the most memorable, enriching ingredients to boot!

The upcoming July show marks my ONE year anniversary and FOURTH show but the amount of inspiring thoughts, enlightening conversations, stolen glances, and new friends is innumerable.

Hello, my name is Tara, and I am a Hollywood Show addict. But, this is an addiction from which I will never want to recover.

For those of you who have experienced it  … well, you know. And, I would love for you to chime in here and post your gems if you feel like sharing.

Here are some of my thoughts and experiences from the past year that I will remember for the rest of my life and these are but a few.

I hope that our collective sharing will illuminate the fact that when the celebrities are there … they are SO there. As I often remind people on Facebook, they are people so it would be wrong for me to making a sweeping statement like, “They are ALL so grateful and so happy to see their fans,” because some of them are not as good at showing it, some have come with life circumstances on their mind but decided to honor their commitment, and some probably are … just plain jerks. (There is a little bit of chum for the snarky-sharky fans who have been chomping at the bit ever since our “Be nice!” rule went into effect!) However, it is true that the majority of the celebrities who attend THS are TRULY grateful and sincerely and deeply happy to see and chat with their fans.

One example of this is something that I witnessed. I walked into the room on the first day and heard the eternally lovely Shirley Knight exclaim, “My daughter is going to have a heart attack!” She was radiating with delight. I butted in and asked what was going on and she immediately flashed a copy of the movie “Champions: A Love Story” as the fan who had just given it to her stood beaming with joy and Shirley excitedly told me the story of how her daughter had loved that one movie above all others that she’d done but that she did not have a copy of it. Well, now she does! She turned to the stellar fan and said, “I love you more than I can say.” Then she looked back at me and said, “This alone is worth me being here.”

THAT WAS MY VERY FIRST-EVER MOMENT AT THE HOLLYWOOD SHOW! Can you imagine?!!! No wonder I was hooked!

Being of a curious nature and never one to be accused of shyness, I realized that celebrities love to chat about themselves as well as their careers. One of my favorite questions to ask them is, “If you could do ANY role in ANY medium, which one are you most passionate to play?”

Here are a few of the answers:

John Schneider (who is just about the loveliest man on the face of the earth) flashed that killer smile and cheekily said, “Jeff Bridges just did it!” … He wanted to be the one to revive the great Rooster Cogburn in “True Grit”.

It was SUPER fun to hear Erin Murphy answer without hesitation, “Criminal Minds!” … immediately David Lawrence, one of the twins who played Tabitha (Erin) Stephen’s brother, Adam, on the show “Bewitched” wanted to know what we were talking about … (see how these fun conversations spread like wildfire?!) so I asked him and he as well shot back, “Oh, BURN NOTICE! I love that show!”

Probably one of the savviest business minds to attend THS is Eric Roberts who’s first choice was to be on “Oprah” but with only 16 episodes left, I fear he may be (pardon my acronymical French), S.O.L.!

If the studios were as savvy as Mr. Roberts they would step up to the fact that Sherilyn Fenn’s answer was a mind-blowing winner … she would like to do a movie about “THE ‘IT’ GIRL: The Clara Bow Story”. And WOW is she delightful! I know I’d be there in line buying my ticket on opening weekend.

Bub Gunton, as many of you know, is an acting force of nature.  Besides his well-known, stand-out  performance of the Warden in “Shawshank Redemption” he also played Eva Perón’s husband, Juan Perón, in the original Broadway production.  Bob has his sights set on the role of King Lear but after a bit of soul-searching, he admitted that his true passion project is to do a one man show about Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

In the music world, Mickey Dolenz felt that he had just satisfied his passion piece with his most recent CD.  A work of love that he recorded with his sister, Coco Dolenz that, if you have not heard … I highly recommend you get it.  It’s called,  “King For A Day” and is an album-length salute to Carole King,  His pride and joy being the cut of “Cryin’ In The Rain”.

My personal favorite conversation the day I decided to use my degree in Journalism and ask as many of the celebrities this question as humanly possible … was both the most surprising and the my most cherished. I certainly knew who France Nguyan was from watching “South Pacific” over and over and over and over again as a child (she played the gorgeous Liat opposite the even more gorgeous Lt. Joe Cable) but I simply did not know the scope nor depth of Ms. Nguyan’s career and therefore, I felt such a beautiful connection when I struck up a conversation with her and she recommended a book to me the description of which I am going to share with you here because it is a TERRIFIC book and one which she would like to see made into a feature film:

Bittersweet

By: Leslie Li

“…tells the life story of Li Xuewen, wife of the first democratically elected vice president of China, who began her life as the unwanted fourth daughter of a peasant farmer and rose in prestige and fortune to become the number one wife of a brilliant military hero. Her story reveals a scope of history and changes in Chinese culture that few Westerners have glimpsed. Inspired by the events of her grandmother’s life, the author engages the reader in an engrossing novel about love and war, and the indomitable spirit of a woman determined to keep her family and self-respect intact.”

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I will caution you that it IS true that sometimes a handler or a celebrity can be not only rude but hurtful and my suggestion to you is – DON’T LET ONE CRAPPY MOMENT RUIN THE ENTIRE BANQUET OF FUN!  It’s happened to me … Just soldier on and GET HAPPY!

As you probably know, Robert Blake caused a horribly inappropriate scene at one of the shows and, in his grand display of narcissistic personality disorder, ended up being incredibly rude to two of the hardest working men in show business … and two of the NICEST … the owners of the show, Kevin Martin and David Elkouby.  (I’m hoping to pin them each down for an interview for the next blog posting because YOU NEED to know how wonderful these men are and what good intentions that have and, most importantly, the level of integrity at which they work.)

Timothy Busfield  (surprisingly handsome in real life!) started out lamenting the fact that he now feels too old to play “Hamlet” but was intrigued enough by the question that he kept asking me to come back in a little while because it was clear that he was having fun thinking about it. Ultimately, as is often in life, he realized that what he would truly LIKE to do would be a guest spot on “Family Guy” … like the show itself, he spent the day distilling his otherwise “grand desires” down to the fact that, what really counts … the thing that you will remember at the end the proverbial day, is the simple things that you thoroughly enjoyed.
I can honestly say that The Hollywood Show is the greatest gift that fell in my lap since I moved to Los Angeles just over a year ago.

I hope that you will come and experience it and that you will allow yourself to have as many sparkling moments as I have had.

Forget your troubles, come on get happy … join us at the July Hollywood Show!

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