Everything old is new again again.

Lately I've been watching ME-TV, a local L.A. channel that broadcasts old TV shows from the late 1950's to the late 1960's. Shows like Ironsides, Rockford Files, Gunsmoke, Rawhide and lots of others. These were the shows the boomer generation watched as kids. Boomers, for those who don't know were born from 1946 to 1964 and represented the "baby boom" after WW11 when the soldiers came home.

A lot of my generation always talked about the great old TV series we had then and great ideas and stars.

But watching lots of these old shows, I have to admit some of them weren't very good at all. And I find it hard to watch the hour-long shows of the good series. After a while, I watch only a handful and even there just one or two.

And it also came to me that our generation has watched more movies and TV shows than any other generation in history. Of course we started watching TV in the mid 50's for most of the country (U.S. and Canada). We also watched old movies a lot, in fact my little town theater played movies that were made 20 years before I started to see movies.

Still, there were a lot of plotlines and ideas that spilled out and by now, we've seen almost every idea there ever was. The studios are even making remakes and sequels for the new generation of movies and TV shows we watched as kids.

And they now are coming back -- for the newer generations.

Lately there was an Ironsides sequel but was cancelled and Law & Order is a remake of an old series called Arrest & Trial. And when it comes to movies, how about remakes and sequels from Star Wars, Star Trek, Superman, Batman and on and on...

That's why many of my generation will say that most of the new stuff is crap. I don't think it's crap, they're made much better in terms of production values although you can't beat a good black & white movie from the 1940's. Casablanca anyone?

But there is a lot of "crap" out there now, but there always was a lot of "crap" back in the late 50's onwards. 

We had a new wave of filmmakers that came up from film schools in the late 60's, Coppola and Lucas and Spielberg and Scorceses and Milius and a lot of others. And a lot of them are still working.

So what about the latest generation; the millennials.

They certainly aren't as great as that film school group, in fact barely even able to make anything new. Their stories seem to revolve around going back to that home town to find that girl/guy who dumped them. You should watch Scorcese's Mean Streets to see a great "first film". 

He did one previous but Mean Streets is his best. He had DeNiro and Keitel and a couple other great actors.

And that's also where millennials fail... their cast. Millennial actors just don't seem to have that presence of form that the previous generations seemed to have. It just isn't there. Maybe it was because the 50's movies were written by people who experienced World War 11 and boomers dealing with assassinations of great men and Vietnam.

Maybe the millennials never experienced anything else than iPhones and texting instead of talking. 

And they rarely, if ever, watch old movies the way we did. Maybe because it was new to us and they grow up with 500 channels. 

A good example of bad and good is a series on Me-TV is "Wanted: Dead or Alive" about a western bounty hunter (bounty hunters would hunt down criminals; they still do now). It was a typical TV western, shot on a studio lot and most of the stories weren't very good but it had Steve McQueen (not the director now) and McQueen had something that millennial actors don't seem to have. And he could carry the show.

Carrying the show means simply, that with his presence people would watch. The boomer actors seemed to have much more presence, and it makes up for a bad script or a poor movie.  Notice CSI has a boomer lead actor, there's also Tom Selleck in another TV show. In fact you'll see a boomer lead in most TV shows except for CW stuff.

They're there for the boomer audience of course, but they're also there because they can carry the show.  Except for CW whose ratings are always at the bottom even though it's made for millennials.

Go figure.

Anyways, just a piece of history for around 40% of you who regularly read this blog.

And don't feel bad, because we boomers had lots of bad movies.


 

The week-end... writing.

There was one good thing about this week; I began writing the screenplay my director friend and the actor who suggested it. I held off for a long time, several weeks, not sure of exactly how to write it.

Stories I write for myself are generally easier to write then having to write for someone else. I think that most of the produced screenplays I've written were assignments. The catch there is that I'm writing with a specific goal and story.

Sometimes I don't like the story.

And that's when it comes to two things; do I write anything and take the money or do I try to find something in the story given to me that I can catch onto, something that appeals to at least one aspect of the story.

It all sounds easy to non-writers, ya write down words and get paid for it, what's the problem?

The problem is that some writers, like me, really want to find the "truth" in a screenplay, something to hold onto in order to create a reasonably coherent story. 

And that's where this new story enters; it's based on an idea the actor has and it took me a good three weeks to find something to hang onto it. And during that time, I was not a pleasant person to hang around with...

Because it nags at you, sort of like you forgot to turn the TV off when you go out of town. And then there's the avoiding the computer. I sometimes just to to my iMac and begin doing some video editing on a project that's been stalled for at least 5 years.

Then Wednesday, I got up and wrote on my PC laptop. 4 pages. A weak start and an uncertain one. Then I put it away. Later in the day I forced myself to look at the four pages and figured it's not too bad. I would write more Thursday.

Thursday came and I wrote more. And it began to have something to it. Not great, not yet, but it could work.

So today, after emails and phone calls, I am going to try a few more pages. The week-end is not for work so I'll have two days to mull it over. And Monday is a new start.

I hope.
 

Meryl, Julia and the beards and Ben...

A few blogs ago I mentioned my oscar contenders, both men and women. There were enough men but only two possible female contenders; Bullock for Gravity and Kate Blanchette for Jasmine.

But as of today, a whole slew arose, and in one movie; The movie is August: Osage County.

And battling it out will be Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts. Should be interesting. But that's only four women. Maybe Mary Steenburgen for the routine comedy Last Vegas but maybe someone else in the fall.

Then there are the beards;

I didn't really catch on to the male beard thing; was it Ben Afflec in Argo? All of a sudden a lot of young male actors have sported beards. Even my friend's son attempted to create a beard and since he's a millennial, I realized this must be "trending". I even noticed it today when I took my car in for an oil change and walked home. A millennial passed me on his trendy bike and he too had a beard.

Everything old is new again goes the saying.

Nobody seems to know where that saying came from, there are a few possibilities but nobody in particular except for Peter Allen, who was a famous Australian song writer back in the 80's.

So what's so new about beards?

It was a big thing back in the hairy 70's and even had me with a beard when I was working on a TV news film crew. Hard to believe I had that much hair. I don't really remember why I grew a beard, I think it was simply because I didn't want to shave and the TV station allowed me to grow one. Even my then-wife Brenda didn't mind it, calling me "Beardsley".

It once got me past some security people who were handling Jane Fonda who refused to

have an interview or photos from the media. It was mostly because I looked like most of the guys in her entourage.  And here's one of about 90 pics I took of her in appropriate anti-establishment clothes and that great hair from Klute. She was quite cooperative and very nice as they say. 

Another aspect of beards was skiing which offered the "frozen beard" which, at the top of the mountain was soft but by the bottom it was a forest of icicles and it burned against the skin.

So, beards are back. Although since I noticed it, the trenders are off to another trend by now.

Now that I've said a Monday blog, I can get to work. All of this was the final stalling before I start that screenplay.

Haute Spot in London: Bvlgari Hotel & Residences

If you're in London and you want to check out one of my new haute spots head to Bvlagri London Hotel and Residences. It's a 5-star boutique hotel in the Knightsbridge shopping area with lots to see and do. 

Jetting in for lunch and Champagne is always the perfect escape for a Haute Travels girl. It's also a favorite among royal families and VIPs. You never know who you're rubbing shoulders with at this luxury property.

And don't forget evening cocktails at the bar, after all that's where socialites and models like to hang out in London. It's the perfect place to indulge.

Beauty Haute Spot: Saint James Paris’ Spa by Gemology

The Saint James Paris is a sight to behold. The former chateau turned hotel and spa with private membership was the site of the first hot air balloon launch in Paris, France. As a recent guest at the

Spa by Gemology, reportedly the first mineral spa, I couldn’t help but marvel at the spectacular interior design and cozy comfort of the property. The “pop art splendor” of the Napoleon III style décor complete with a massive 14-meter high crystal chandelier in the lobby surrounded by red hues adds a bit of haute-ness. 

This chateau-hotel, home to the private Saint James Club for wealthy residents, offers amazing spa treatments featuring “beauty from precious trace elements.” I was given the 75-minute Saint James Gemology Massage for face and body using rose quartz, agate and moonstone to sooth tired muscles. The rose quartz is believed by some to offer balance and rejuvenation. It’s also said to produce constant energy. It’s the stone of unconditional love and infinite peace designed to remove blockages from the heart bringing healing to the one who comes in contact with it. 

Relaxing spa music and strategically designed massage strokes and technique with polished stones helped make my time at Le Saint James Paris enjoyable and unforgettable. Once my treatment had come to an end, I was off to the beautiful gardens for refreshments while talking beauty with a makeup artist friend surrounded by hot air balloons! 

Haute Travels Tip:   The area around The Saint James Paris 

This chic and unique location, in the exclusive 16^thdistrict, is just steps away from the luxury boutiques of Victor Hugo. The Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe and the Museum of Modern Art are also close by offering so much more to see and do. 

Haute Beauty Talk in Paris

My celebrity makeup artist friend Catherine Maquilleuse is always in the know about beauty and fashion. When we met in Paris at the private membership-only Saint James Paris, we spent the afternoon in the gardens surrounded by hot air balloons. The haute spot is after-all the site of the first hot air balloon launch. I couldn't think of a better place to talk about art, creativity and makeup!

Haute Beauty tips from Paris for the Girl on the Go:

Moisturize Daily
Use a Concealer to Hide Flaws
Use Lip Color that Pops 
Use a Great Mascara for Lashes to Die For
Keep Hair Simple

The black and white of it all...

Lefty who I mentioned last week and who always has 6 screenplays "ready to go" asked me to make some changes in Deadhead, my story about an aging jetliner that gets possessed by a ghost with 8 actors in the story. The jetliner is "deadheading" back to the place jetliners retire to and there's only the eight passengers, all employees.

Things turn bad when something hits the jetliner and causes it to create its own course and heads out into the darkness of the Pacific Ocean. So top that with a creature on the airplane and you got a neat little thriller.

Okay, so Lefty told me he's meeting with an African-American producer  who wants to make movies with blacks. Then Lefty said this;

"Can you write in the pilot as a black person?"

First of all, I remind some of you that I am Canadian and we never had the "issue" that America had. In fact, before and during the Civil War, a lot of African Americans came to Canada where there was no slavery.

Secondly, growing up in the middle of nowhere in Manitoba (it's above Minnesota) in a town of 539 or so, we never saw any minority. In fact we (the Ukrainians) were the minority that was treated badly, as well as Jews. But never to the extent of slavery. I remember seeing a black conductor on a train and looked in awe like I was looking at a celebrity.

Then there were the movies; they did not give me a nice feeling to the American south. Seeing To Kill A Mocking Bird and then Sidney Portier in In The Heat of The Night. To this day I have never gone to the south, but there is a curiosity there... maybe one day.

But getting back to Lefty.

And changing the line of a character like this;  "Sally Jackson, apprehensive"  to  "Sally Jackson, African-American, apprehensive."

Sounds easy enough. Takes maybe 10 seconds to make the change.

But I had another thought. Why bother at all with ethnicity. Why not leave it to the producer, in this instance, an African-American himself. Lefty didn't like that, felt it "had to be on the page".

I said that I felt like I was being condescending and maybe insulting. After all the role could be white, black, Asian or anything else. And since the African-American producer has said he's making films with black people Let the producer pick whom he wants without making it a race issue. I don't need to spell it out for him. He's making movies for a black audience and frankly everyone on the jetliner can be black, or whatever he wants. It's his movie. I don't need to tell him what color his actors are, it doesn't matter.

I told Lefty I'll leave the description as Sally Jackson, apprehensive, just as it is. It can be anybody and any color. Putting a specific racial tone to it isn't needed. He might even want to change it to be a man. That has happened to one of my screenplays. After awhile, Lefty conceded that maybe I'm right. 

But I don't think I'm right, I think it's really a non-issue. Once I turn over a screenplay to a producer, it's his or her baby. And I don't need to tell him what color he chooses.