Category: Journal

Last week I downed my pride and stopped in at the ol’ Bookstar to sign an emplyment application. That’s right, big time Hollywood screenwriter begging for a book stacking job. So, I’m sitting there filling out the app when I hear, “Dude, didn’t you write Jason X?”
My first celebrity sighting. Some Friday fan recognized my mug from the flick and internet pics. Then he stares down at the app and asks what’s up? His buddies start snickering. Horrid experience. And in the end, they didn’t even offer me the job. But that’s fine. I’m doing another Ghost Writing assignment. There is, of course, this looming idea that if it gets made and becomes a block buster that I get no credit, no recognition and no more money but when you are looking at your watch and it says broke-thirty, you do what you gotta do. I still seem to always find money when really needed. Blessed some call it.

Well, I survived the Jason X experience I suppose. At least my friends were supportive. John Jarrell, Kurt Wimmer, Hensleigh, Dean Lorey and Riesner. They were all great. They’ve all been there and they all told their worst most embarrassing stories…well, Hensleigh’s never been there. But he knows we all have our flops, he’s just had a great run.
Dean Lorey and Elizabeth are heading to Vegas mid-month and asked if Mel and I would like to go. Maybe it’s time Mel took my last name. Elvis maybe? I gave her a ring about a year ago. It was gonna be the two of us and Dean Riesner at Disneyland inside our favorite restaurant, the Blue Bayou, when I popped the question. But the Blue was closed. Mel and I got stuck in traffic on the way to Riesner’s and I asked her if she really wanted to spend the rest of her life stuck in traffic with me. She said yes so I asked her to marry me. Then when we got to Dean’s and she told him they both cried for an hour. I told him to freaking calm down, the way I smoke I’ll be dead in three years and Mel is all his. He, of course, offered me a smoke.

Jason X is dead. We all met at Universal and saw the flick. The theatre was pretty empty. My lawyer left a message saying it looked like we’d make around six million. That’s not very good. He said it did look like we’d beat all the other first releases this weekend…Jolie being one of them but six million is horrid. I’ll never work again.

Tomorrow’s the big day…well, tonight rather. The screening went…I don’t know. I couldn’t tell if the audience liked it or not. They seemed real quiet. Ugh, I think we’re gonna get creamed. Hensleigh sent and very nice email. Said he would be buying two tickets tomorrow night. I actually thought it was sort of funny. He didn’t say he’d go, just that he’d buy tickets. Not really his kind of movie. The plan is to see it with the Loreys and Noel and John Jerrell and Wimmer and a couple of Mel’s friends. I think we’re gonna hit Universal. In less than 24 hours we’ll know whether or not I’m a hero or a big friggin dummy.

Well, a flick like Jason X doesn’t exactly get a big premiere, what we get is a radio station sponcered screening. That’s Thursday night. Ugh. I don’t want to go. Last time I saw it I didn’t like it and I was several Vodka’s into numbness. Jimmy and David and Sean and Kane will be there so I can’t exactly blow it off. And Jonathan Potts is flying in from Canada to see it with us. He played Yllo (which later became Lowe because everyone was too stupid to make the Y silent). Jonathan’s a good guy. We’ve been chatting through email. He could use a hit himself. The other two leads now have their Sci-Fi TV show and some of the others have moved on to bigger things but Jonathan’s been struggling I think. Hrmph, I’m still struggling, I think.