Bones and the Flood

I went to work on Bones over at 20th Century Fox today. The set flooded so they sent some of us home with a full day's pay. Thank God I was in jeans and they could not use me as a lab rat. My friend Becky was not as lucky. She was there for 8 hours and they used her for maybe 5 minutes. It was really unfortunate because she was hoping to to her orientation thing at Pink Taco. I went to the 20th Century store and spent my paycheck on House t-shirts. One of them says "It's Not Lupus". I didn't know if it was appropriate for my to purchase this shirt since my brother died of Lupus. I said this to my cousin on the phone and the cashier overheard. I caught him in his eavesdropping and the look on his face was priceless. He looked so embarassed and yet he felt sorry for me and freaked out all in one. He didn't mention anything when I checked out...but he couldn't really give me eye contact either. I ended up getting the shirt of course...and another one that is brown...I really have problems.

Brothers and Sisters and the Australian Diva

Today I was a nurse/volunteer on Brothers and Sisters. The slash is necessary cause I was initially a nurse, but looked young so this one dancer girl and I were volunteers instead. I wore my white Adidas shoes which really hurt my feet. I bought them in 2003 and they look as good as new, so I figured they'd be good nurse's shoes. Not worth the pain though...how come shoes always feel fine in the store and RIGHT when you leave, they hurt your feet? The other volunteer left in the middle of the day to go audition to be a hip hop dancer for an Ed Hardy Holiday party. It was strange. I also learned from an extra that the school system in New Jersey is abysmal and her 23 year-old nephew still does not know how to read. He ended up stealing a couple cars and wound up in jail. It was a sad story cause I guess her sister is a train wreck and the kids really wanted to live with her but couldn't. Looks like Bush's No Child Left Behind Act was in full swing these past 8 years.

I'm a big fan of Six Feet Under so was excited to see Rachel Griffiths, but apparently she is a huge diva. I think it may be an Australian thing cause Poppy on Without a Trace is also very difficult and you can't walk in her eye line. (This seems so funny ever since Christian Bale's explosion on set). Rachel also used to do these breathing exercises before each take that would take forever and drive the crew insane, but she's settled down some this season. A lot of the actors were sick so she was on heavy drugs too that made her completely out of it. I wonder if she was hallucinating...it seemed like it.

The coolest part of the day was walking around on the Disney lot during lunch and seeing them film a special effects scene for Lost. It was part of the plane against a green screen and bits of it was on fire. Very neat. Maybe I should get into special effects. It seemed so fun.

CSI: NY and the Man Who Can't Be My Husband

Today was a pretty funny day because I was paired up with this guy Gabriel and we were supposed to be a couple at a restaurant and we'd get up from the table to reveal Gary Sinise. (I was featured for those who caught the episode). Gabriel put my coat on me and kissed my cheek and was all debonair. We could hear the director laughing and apparently there was a discussion going on about how Gabriel and I must not have been married because he was being too sweet and chivalrous. He was mighty charming if I do say so myself. Though, he was also bitter for not having a girlfriend...apparently he finds himself to be quite the catch but thinks girl judge him for his shorter stature. There were also a lot of half naked girls as part of a sex ring. I always wondered what type of girl was okay with that role....not one of them spoke English as their first language. Makes me think that there are a different set of principles outside of the US.

Without a Trace and the Mysterious Tablet

I had gotten into quite the routine of coming to work on Without a Trace. I had my assigned place by the wall socket to plug in my laptop that I now felt comfortable enough to bring to set. My sister has a slingbox, so I could watch TV on my laptop. Very convenient especially when prime-time shows start. However, today was not like any other day because for some reason, I decided to look in my pocket.

I had bought a new suit a few months ago because I was tired of wardrobe commenting on how the my last suit's jacket was too short or it was too light. I went to buy a nice Theory coal colored pin stripe suit at It's a Wrap which is a store that sells used wardrobe from television and movies. It's about a $600 suit that I got for $70. Not too shabby. But for some reason, I had never bothered to look in the pockets, which were mostly stitched up, until today. I felt a little bump in my right butt cheek pocket and decided to investigate. What I pulled out was a white powdery round tablet about the size of a pill. I showed it to another guy on set and he told me that it looked like ecstasy laced with heroin. ( I later looked up online that they don't lace ecstasy with heroin. ) He also guessed that the pants came from Jennifer Love Hewitt. Apparently I look the same size as her. I was flattered, sure, since she is a size 4 and makes a lot of male top ten attractive bodies lists, but I just had to remind him that I was about 4 inches taller and the pants were not hemmed at all. I was completely floored that I, Mary Howard, had been walking around with ecstasy in my pocket for months! What if I had been stopped by a cop and searched? I believed him of course because frankly, that's exactly what it looked like to me as well. The edges were too powdery to be a regular pill and why would someone have a random pill in their pocket. I also noticed from experience that it was not tylenol or any other form of advil or aspirin which is the only pill that makes sense to have on oneself.

Luckily for us, there was a reformed drug addict on set named Christian who could shine a light on the situation. After his careful analysis of sniffing and scratching at it with his fingernail before licking the debris, he told us it looked like a dry cleaned breath mint. He didn't rule out ecstasy, he just gave us a more likely substitute. I still wasn't convinced. There is only one real way to find out. Any takers?