Heroes and the Joey Pal

Well, it is a new year and before I begin my post about the joys of Heroes, I would like to take the time and re-evaluate all that I have learned this past year of doing extra work.

-It takes a real actress to dance to absolutely no music, in painful heels, with a smile on her face, after someone spills a syrupy mixture of sorts on her dress and to not react in terror after realizing it will take half her paycheck for the night to dry clean it.

-It takes a real actress to behave like it is cold outside and to shiver, even though she is wearing a wool coat and it is one hundred degrees outside in sunny LA and the shiver might be caused by a fever due to dehydration. AND she can always pass the sweat off as melting snow on her forehead.

-It takes a real actress to wake up at 4 am and get her hair and makeup done, only to wait around for 8 hours doing nothing, while her hair frizzes and her make up melts and smears across her face.

-It takes a real actress to seem upset after being wrapped after working only 10 minutes on set. That's like $350/hour. And to think...I could have been a doctor.

As you know, I love working Heroes. Why? They have good food. That's the only difference really between a good show and a bad show... the grub. Today was sub par for them, but I'm not going to complain really cause I did eat steak and birthday cake which I sure hell would not have eaten at my apartment. I also got to work with Sylar (Zachary Quinto) today and also Zelijko Ivanek who has been really big of late appearing on True Blood and House and he won the Emmy last August for Best Actor in TV Drama. I would say he's huge even...except for that he is not. When I first saw him on set, I did not recognize him. In fact I found him to be terrifying...kind of looked like someone who would go postal on you at any moment. Also, he is tiny. Like 5'3" and the width of my thigh. IMDB has him listed at 5'7" but that is a lie...sure I was wearing heels...but he was shorter than every guy there and had to sit on two pillows to make out with this one Asian girl. Key word in that sentence was Asian...and god knows they are a tiny people...unless you are Yao Ming. It was really cool to see him though.

Okay..I'm not going to freak out...but Zachary Quinto touched me. Yikes! Moving on up in the world...first he throws trash at me and says sorry, and now he bumps into me while moving through a crowd of people. Oh the little joys of extra work.

Now, I used to have a theory that any guy who likes Frank Sinatra music has to be a decent guy. I would like to modify my theory however. Any guy who likes Frank Sinatra music has to be a decent guy unless they are an Italian from New York. I had my Sinatra purse on set today which has been my usual for the past few months. I assume this guy had seen it when he decided to blast "New York, New York" from his MP3 player, but who knows. I try to be friendly to this guy who looks like the offspring of Elvis and Zachary Quinto and say that I too like Frank Sinatra music and he says, "Frank Sinatra is the best. Ain't no one better. Other people can sing his songs, but no one will sing em like Frank does...no one" Now...he said this as if he were going to kill me...as if I threatened him in someway, which was quite jarring and I decided to not speak to him again, but then he said, "Have you seen Joey Pal?" "Ummmm....You mean Pal Joey" I replied. "Yeah. That's it, Pal Joey, I alway get it reversed. Boy, Rita Hayworth is something in that, isn't she?"

I will never understand why guys on set are so crazy. The girls don't seem half as demented at times. And I always feel so awkward for the poor helpless ones who catch a guy's fancy. I can usually take care of myself with these crazed wolves since my knowledge can be quite intimidating, but most are not as fortunate as I. Towards the end of the night there was this shorter version of Kevin Smith preaching to this attractive female about how important watching movies is to an actor and how surprised he was at how few movies some of the theatre students at his college had seen. (Clearly he did not go to USC.) He was saying how his favorite movie was Raging Bull and how Meryl Streep was the most nominated actress, and this poor girl had to listen to his rant and was clearly not interested since she knew a lot of this stuff anyway (just because you haven't seen the movie, doesn't mean you're clueless as to what it is about Kevin Smith look-a-like!) I usually behave myself on set and act very professionally but I almost lost it with what look-a-like said next. He said he was going to have a Sam Mendes marathon. You know...watch American Beauty and Road to Perdition and LITTLE CHILDREN!! That was my chance, my chance to put the girl out of her misery and to put this little show off in his place. TODD FIELD! I wanted to scream. TODD FIELD directed Little Children you douche. But alas...I refrained. However, my facial expressions must have given away my thoughts??? Fore at that instant the guy next to me turned to me and said, "You need to read this book called the Power of Now. I can tell you are either thinking about the Past or the Future, and you need to be in the Now" I am quite confused. "Actually, I was thinking of the present. In fact I was eavesdropping and analyzing the person next to me". "Oh", he replied, "You must be a Cancer or a Libra". "No... I'm not". And that was the end of it.

A few moments later, they started cutting people to go home. I noticed that they were keeping all the "hot" people for another scene. I made it past 3 cuts until they realized that they had all women and no men. Still...not bad to be considered hot enough to be part of the 2nd to last cut. Ego Boost!

Keep an eye out for this episode 3.21!

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?

Samantha Who and the Great Dane

Samantha Who has always been my least favorite show to work on because of the long hours, walk away lunches, and early early call times. Yet today might have been my favorite day of extra work ever. Why you ask? Because there was a Great Dane on set. His name was Bentley and everyone was going Ga-Ga over him. Yet, who did he like best on set? ME! I went up to his owner and befriended her immediately asking her questions and finding out what a great apartment dog he is (so reassuring). I got to hang out with him and pet him for 4 hours, and at the end, he gave me an endearing lick on the face. In one lap, his tongue went from chin to forehead. Onlookers grimaced and ewwwed, but I was in Heaven. I gave him a kiss on the nose, and he went on his way.

What also made this day great was the fact that I saw Charlie again. I hadn't seen him since Race to Witch Mountain. He didn't recognize me of course since he had never seen me out of costume, but after teasing him awhile, he figured it out. He told me I should work on True Blood, and he just happened to have worked in the scene that my friend Deborah worked on. He thought she was amazing, and that everyone else sucked. I had to call her and tell her. Jonathan Dillon was on set as well. I went to high school with him, and then also he transferred to USC film school when I started as well. It's always nice to see fellow Kansans, but he has to be one of the most awkward guys ever. We always end our conversations saying that we should hang out sometime, but we never do. Still, it was good to see him. Also on set I met this cool guy Dan (who looks like Mos Def) and also Rebecca (Becky) who I had met previously on The Amazing Miss Novak. We walked over to Trader Joes and McDonalds during our lunch and got food and a McFlurry. I usually don't eat during walk away lunches, but felt the need to be social. We became quite the trio, especially when we worked together again on Ghost Whisperer, but I'll get to that later.

There was a scene we did at a funeral later in the day. I was in a nice maroon sweater and dress pants and had my hair up. I feel the need to describe my appearance because of what happened during that scene. I was standing in my place as we were about to role when I heard the director shout, "What's the one who looks like one of us doing in the shot?" The 2nd Director came up to me quickly and told me to walk in to frame instead. I guess I look like a crew person. Which makes sense, I suppose since I went to film school. I just never knew that we had a "look". I glanced around the room trying to decipher what it was about me that differed from all the other extras. Besides the smile and happy disposition, I thought I fit in. Maybe it was the fact that I was young and happy and comfortable on set. Or maybe only crew people wear their hair up and extras are required to wear it down...who knows. But this is not the first time I have been confused with a crew person rather than an extra, and I'm sure it won't be the last.

NCIS and the Evil Wardrobe Guy

This may have been my 5th or 6th day working on NCIS and all the days pretty much blur together with the exception of my first day in which I was given the nickname "Doctor" by a crew member who was amazed by my medical jargon because I knew that you weren't supposed to eat grapefruit while on Lipitor. (Pretty common knowledge especially if you have parents with high cholesterol.) After realizing I was smarter than the average background performer, a fellow extra decided to hold a conversation with me in which he quizzed me about the evolution of extinct species and then proceeded to answer his questions in what could only have been a one-sided conversation. I have avoided him since.

I have never really cried on set before...walking to my car, yes, but never have I lost it while I'm working... until today. NCIS has never been my favorite show to work on because I have to wear my suit all day and I'm usually the youngest by a good twenty years. Jesus...I must look 30 again. Also, since I am the youngest, I feel as though I am the target of George the Wardrobe guy's wrath. He hates my suits. I used to wear a grey one, but he always complained that the jacket was too short, so I went out and bought a new one especially for him. I wore it last time I worked, and he okayed me. Didn't say a thing. For once, I didn't have to borrow a jacket from him that is long enough to cover my ass which I'm sure must be intimidating to a gay man such as he. Sure, my new suit wasn't that long...after all I do want to appear youthful and not plumpy, but it was longer than my last and much more flattering if I do say so myself. The fact that he didn't make me change did wonders for my confidence. A confidence that he demolished when I wore that same exact outfit this beautiful Valencia day.

It was supposed to be a short day and my friend Cindy was going to be on set, but when I arrived, I was informed that there was going to be a wardrobe change. Of course, on the one day I didn't bring any back up because I hadn't had the chance to wash my dress shirts (which the Wardrobe guy hated anyway.) I was terrified, but I figured this is his job. He LOST it. He started patronizing me from the beginning telling me how unprofessional I was, and he asked if I wanted to go home. I told him no. Then he proceeded to tell me that my suit jacket was too short and starting sighing with frustration because I was actually going to make him work. He told me, "You always do this." I said, "No, this is my first time." "No, you always come unprepared. What did I give you last time to wear?" That is when I got offended..."Um. This is exactly what I wore last time, and you okayed it so I thought it would be fine today." "That is not what you wore last time." "Yes, yes it is." He then handed me off to his assistant proclaiming in a huff, "Here, you deal with her. I can't handle this anymore." I was hurt. Never have I been so insulted. His assistant was very nice however. He let me wear what I had on for one change and gave me a jacket and a blouse for the other. I told him that he never liked what I brought, so why bring anything. His assistant was very sympathetic, but that didn't help the waterworks that came when I left the trailer. I ran to crafty for some food with Cindy in tow trying to brighten my day. Useless. I wanted to get out of there, and finally 3 hours later, I did, hoping to never return.