It usually takes me at least two cups of coffee before I can conjugate verbs in English, and I began rushing to get ready in the morning so that I can be "on the set" for my fan perspective interview with Tim at 9:00, which was to take place in the penthouse suite of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, where once upon a time, Gable and Lombard took up residence.
Lynn,my LA pal and roomie, tells me to "get moving." It was my turn to rule the powder room.
I hear the mambo music playing from my Razorphone. It was the TCM crew in charge of my interview. Would it be all right if they changed me from 9:00 a.m. to Noon? Of course not. I was so nervous, I didn't care if it took place at all. I was shaking, but I had just talked to someone in charge of something at TCM!
I can't decide what to wear. I didn't want to be to spangly-bangly, or flashy-trashy, so I went with my black Misook outfit with the long pants, shell, and jacket with stripes across the shoulders and the little blue-flowered buttons.
But before I could don the outfit, I had to delve into make-up. My hands were shaking so much by the time my foundation had been set with translucent beige powder, that I couldn't draw a straight line with my liner pencil. Then I sneezed, and my eyeliner drooped below the lid. I repaired that line, and then I tried applying mascara, and curled the lashes a little, and sneezed again. Little black marks that looked like bird tracks appeared beneath my lower lids.
Mambo music on the Razorphone again. My son calls from Texas to say he's done well this semester at college. Yay!
I start over. I take makeup remover and remove the tracks, reapply the translucent powder, and begin again all over with the mascara. Curl the lashes. Make some more. I feel another sneeze coming on so I pull by eyelids all the way open so that the little tracks don't make their appearance again. I survived the sneeze with no black birdy tracks, so I proceed to do some more curling.
I'm shaking. I tell Lynn, "I'm shaking so much I can't do my make up!"
Her calm voice reminds me that all will be well. Just hurry up and get ready.
I apply the powder blush, cinnamon peach. I put too much on one cheek. It made me look like one side of me was taller than the other, so I grab a kleenex and smudge some off, and dab a little more translucent powder on it.
I puffled and fluffed my hair a little, and clipped it back with a tortouise-shell- colored clamp. Then I put on my suit, and started to refluff the coif. It was just then that I noticed that one of my nails had chipped, so I reached for the Sally Hansen #230, Hot Cocoa, for a quick repair.
And then we hopped into the car, and Lynn navigated while I tried not to run over any pedestrians. I also was voted by the California Welcome Centers as the tourist driver most likely to be honked at.
Mambo music emanates from my cell. It was Kelli calling to organize the fan perspectives. Can she move me back to 11:00? By this time, I wanted to chicken out all together.
We arrived at the Penthouse Suite and were greeted by the lovely Kelli, a sweet young lady who helped to prep me for my interview. And there were several other folks there who were very nice, but I was so nervous, I forgot their names. I was offered a Diet Coke before my interview, but wished it had been a triple margarita on the rocks with salt on the rim and stability in the stem. No such luck.
I was shaking again.
Lynn spoke some words of encouragement, and I was able to keep my knees from knocking together.
I was introduced to Tim, the fan perspectives director, and we all walked upstairs. O.K. They walked upstairs, and I leaned against the mirrored walls while putting one foot on a step and then another foot on the step above that one.....until I feel like I had crawled up to the top of the Pyramid of the Sun in Teotihuacan, but instead ...the entire crew for the shoot was atop the roof of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.
Lynn was able to stay and watch my interview, and luckily I was able to see her and her "thumbs up" signs of encouragement. Tim, the director, gave me hints about questions I might like to answer. All I could think of was "the chalice from the palace has the brew that is true" and then a crew member wanted to put a mike on me, and I asked him if he had a medical degree to be able to do that.
When he slipped the cord up the back of my jacket, I said " Oooh, that feels pretty good." The crew guys laughed, but I was still shaking inside.
A man walked up to me and told me where my mark was, and I was supposed to stand there without moving or shaking. Uh-huh. They let me sit my Diet Coke down on the rooftop close to my mark. I was already drying up. Then I was so nervous, I did my impression of Katherine Hepburn or Doris Day or somebody singing "Que Sera, Sera."
Then Tim presented ideas about my interests in classic film, and I tried to speak something that made sense. I was not ready for my closeup, Mr. DeMille.
All of a sudden we were finished, and they all thanked me, and they all had been laughing. Lynn said everything went well. So one day interested viewers might see the finished product on Turner Classic Movies fan perspectives.
Then we went to the festival studio headquarters, and I saw HIM. Robert Osborne! Tah-Dah!
He was so nice to everyone.
Lynn was there to help introduce "The Magnificent Ambesons" with Robert Osborne, and she was so calm, cool, and collected. They both had a nice on-camera conversation about the film and I think, the festival.
I was still so nervous, so Lynn can probably fill in the gaps in my saga if she has a mind to. That is where I met two ladies from where I live in Texas, and none of us could believe we were all there together at the festival.
I also developed a crush on one of the crew members and struck up a very casual conversation, and informed him, by the way, that every hotel room comes with its own "Do Not Disturb" sign. Lynn, then pulled me away, and we went to Room 828 in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel to unpack. I wanted to collapse from all the nervous energy and adrenalin. And I did.
Our next move was lunch at the In and Out Burger with friends from TCM City and the Silver Screen Oasis. More later, O.K.?
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