Month: February 2002

It’s been a long day, and I should really be going to bed…but Anne is still out in Riverside, working on “Neverland”, and I know that I won’t be able to sleep until she’s back…
Do any of you married or living-in-sin types feel this way? If I know that she’s staying with one of her friends, or something, I can go to sleep at 9, and sleep like a baby…but if I know that she’s coming home, and I get into bed, I sleep fitfully, and wake with a start after about 90 minutes, absolutely convinced that she’s been smeared all over the freeway.
So I don’t even try to get to sleep now. I just wait up for her, listening to CAKE, and working on the website. I was playing Diablo II:LOD on BattleNet, but the farking lag was so bad, I got killed twice. Reminds me of the old MUDding days, when I’d go to kill Tiamat, and the happy text messages would slow, stop, and then I’d see something like:
Tiamat’s Claw EVISCERATES Shaft!
Tiamat’s Claw EVISCERATES Shaft!
Tiamat’s Claw EVISCERATES Shaft!
Tiamat’s Claw EVISCERATES Shaft!
You are really hurt, now.
Tiamat’s Claw EVISCERATES Shaft!
Tiamat’s Claw EVISCERATES Shaft!
Tiamat’s Claw EVISCERATES Shaft!
You are feeling faint.
Tiamat’s Claw EVISCERATES Shaft!
Tiamat’s Claw EVISCERATES Shaft!
You are nearly dead.
Tiamat’s Claw EVISCERATES Shaft!
You have died.
You are near a healer. “Mmblfggzpth,” the Healer says.
I wonder if that’s funny to anyone but me?
Anyway, enough about Lag. Let’s talk about “Neverland”, shall we?
This movie is really amazing. My friend Damion adapted the book “Peter Pan”, and is retelling the story, featuring homeless kids as The Lost Boys, a Transvestite as Tiger Lilly, and a Leather Daddy as Hook. It’s really twisted, and really amazing, too. I play John Darling, and I’m getting to work with a bunch of really accomplished stage actors in this movie.
Because Hook is a S&M guy, we shot in a real-life S&M dungeon on Sunday, and I gotta tell you, it was a really…interesting…experience. I was initially really freaked out by the place, but, after spending quite a bit of time talking with the head Dominatrix who runs the place, I figured out that my feeling freaked out was based entirely on erroneous preconceptions. That world is totally not my thing, but I have a much better understanding of the whole lifestyle. My favoreit moment of the entire day was when she was about to tie me up. I told the still photographer that he couldn’t take any stills of me all bound, because there are freaks out there who will take those pictures and do…unnatural…things with them. She realized that I was that guy from Star Trek, and she told me that I was “her guy” on TNG. I guess she and all her friends chose who their “guys” were, and she choo-choo-choosed me, even though all her friends thought I was a dork.
So when she was tying my hands for the scene, I think she enjoyed it a little too much…but I was flattered, anyway 😉
We shot today at this really crappy, totally run-down amusement park, that is like a small version of Knott’s Berry Farm, but with traveling carnival rides made permanent, if that makes sense….oh, and there’s about 10 people in the whole place.
Anne, Stephanie, and Elyse (the line producer), and I all went into the “Haunted Mansion”, which was little more than one of those things you see at Coney Island, you know? It’s really just a makeout ride, right? Well, we walked through it…al 25 feet of it, in the dark, “Scooby Doo” style, with just a flashlight. It was very subversive, and we almost got caught by some security drones.
Speaking of Security, I had a callback at Warner Brothers this morning, and holy shit! The security is insane! They checked my ID, and made me open my trunk, and I had to drive around these barriers, like I was going into an embassy. There are all these freaky, Gothic-style posters everywhere, too, extolling the virtues of “checking that mail twice” and “guarding your badge: it’s on you when you’re on the lot!”…they all looked like those old propaganda posters from WWII…but I was happy to see the security, even if it did make me 15 minutes late for my audition.
Speaking of auditions, I did not book the LA LAW gig, but the casting director told my rockin’ managers that I was, and I quote, “far and away the best actor we saw”. She went on to tell them that they cast someone who just looked way more like the guy whose son I would have been playing. At first, I was bummed, because I thought, well, the streak continues…but I feel really good about it. I mean, I absolutely did my best work, with each part of the process that I had any control over.
It also looks like I won’t get the pilot that I had my callback for today, because they are looking for someone more “quirky”, but the casting director really liked what I did, and was impressed with my funny. Trust me, there are worse things in life than having a casting director at Warner Brothers be impressed with my funny! Anyway, it’s only the first week of February, and there’s a lot of pilot season left. This is going to be a good year.
Today’s thought comes from LM:

“Only those who do nothing please everyone.”

Good morning!
I’m checking my email, while the kid’s sausage sizzles on the Foreman Grill, and I was sent a link to this story on Trek Galaxy. It’s an interview with Rick Berman, about Nemesis. It’s a good article, and I call attention to this section:

STM. We know now that Kate Mulgrew and Wil Wheaton will appear in Star Trek: Nemesis as Admiral Janeway and Wesley Crusher, respectively. How did their appearances come about? ”
Berman: “John Logan, who wrote the script, very much wanted Kate to portray an admiral that we had and Kate was delighted to do it. We have a wedding in the movie and guests at the wedding include Wil Wheaton and Whoopi Goldberg.”
STM: Did anyone have to twist your arm to get Wheaton back in there? He’s been under the impression that you didn’t like him.
Berman: “You know, that’s so funny because somebody else told me that. I can’t imagine why anybody would think that way. I’m very fond of Wil. Somebody else, not someone from the press, said to me, “Wil is very interested in being in the movie, but we hear you don’t like him.” I can’t imagine where that came from.”
STM: Actually, it came from Wil. He’s said that he lost favour with you because of the way he left Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Berman: “That could not be farther from the truth.”
STM: The wedding, as we all know, is between Deanna (Marina Sirtis) and Riker (Jonathan Frakes), so it seems like an ideal opportunity for Majel Barrett Roddenberry to reprise her role as Lwaxana. Will she be back? ”
Berman: “Nope. There’s a plot point I don’t want to give away, but there’s a reason.”