Tell Them Beverly Garland Sent You

January 24, 2008

Busy week, but i’ll try to get everyone caught up.

Friday we saw Cloverfield. Ted wasn’t crazy about it but I had a good time. It reminded me of classic 50s sci-fi and the gimmick of seeing everything through the ‘hand-held’ cam only made it creepier for me (esp. the scene in the subway tunnel with those spidery things–ewww!). Anyway it kept me entertained.

Sat. and Sunday we were in LA seeing Ted’s good friend Michael’s show (he wrote the music and lyrics) Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson– a rock musical based on the life and career of Andrew Jackson. It was reminiscent of Broadway’s Spring Awakening, with clever songs and an energetic cast– not to mention amazing set and lighting.

BE WARNED: CELEBRITY SIGHTING TO FOLLOW!

Sitting next to Ted was actor Tony Plana– you may know him as Papi or Ignacio Suarez (Betty’s Father) on Ugly Betty. What a hoot! Considering it’s one of our favorite shows. He seemed like a really nice guy and he’s certainly done a lot of film and television (beyond UB)–including an episode of “Quincy M.D.” in 1979 and “What’s Happening!” (photo from TVGuide.com)

After the show we waited in the lobby for Michael and who should pass by but

WARNING! CELEBRITY SIGHTING #2!!

hunky Benjamin McKenzie of The O.C. !! By this time we are out of our minds because before Ugly Betty, The OC was our guilty pleasure!

We then moved on to probably the only bar we can handle going to in LA: Akbar– which reminds us somewhat of our old haunt–The Phoenix, in the East Village, NYC. Akbar is dark, crowded, with a great jukebox and LA hipsters (you know, the tight jeaned, messy haired, leather jacketed, vintage dress, funky glasses, scarf wearing crowd). No sooner had I made the comment that this seemed to be the only place in LA where we weren’t surrounded by wannabe actors than two actors stood next to us. One, was Tom Lenk, from TVs Buffy the Vampire Slayer (as well as the brand new, direct to DVD Boogeyman2!!). He was a really nice guy, quite appealing (and of course Ted was over the moon because he LOVED that show). And, it appears he’s often performing in his own/one man shows. Might be worth catching sometime.

The second Ak-Tor was Sam Pancake–whom Ted recognized from the short lived but brilliant “Lovespring International.” He was a riot.

Oh, and did I mention we stayed at the lovely BEVERLY GARLAND HOLIDAY INN in North Hollywood? Yes, there is a Beverly Garland Holiday Inn, in fact, I think I wrote about my dream of one day staying there in a previous post.

For those of you who live under a rock, or as writer Marc Acito says (in his book, How I Paid For College) “in case you live in Iowa or something and don’t know anything about it” perhaps I should explain who Beverly Garland is: (much of this I gleaned from the Beverly Garland channel they had playing on a continuous loop in our hotel room) she is an actress with hundreds of television and movie credits. She made a name for herself in crime noir pictures and then B-Horror movies like “The Alligator People” and “It Came From Outer Space” and she was the FIRST lead female cop on television in 1957s “Decoy.” She was nominated for an Emmy for playing a Leukemia patient in an episode of “Medic” in 1954. You might recognize her from her role as the mother in “Where the Red Fern Grows,” or as the step mother in the TV show “My Three Sons” and as Kate Jackson’s mother in “The Scarecrow and Mrs. King.” Wheww she’s done a lot.

Anyway, all weekend me and John, a friend of Ted’s who came to LA with us, kept dropping Beverly Garland’s name everywhere we went. At Akbar we told the doorman “Beverly Garland put us on the list”– to see if we could bypass the line. No Go.

Oh, and BG (as we now call her) got into the hotel business through her late husband who bought her two hotels.

Anyway, here are some lovely pictures of me and Ted at the Beverly Garland Estate Holiday Inn (which, by the way, was quite nice and roomy and clean). Though I was kind of bummed that the hotel gift shop only had a few bits of memorabilia for sale (mostly current pics of her). They needed to have older pictures of her like the ones above (courtesy of Brian’s Drive In Theater.com).

Here I am at the Beverly Garland Theater at the Beverly Garland Holiday Inn. Click the pics to see the whole set at my Flicker account.

And, the trip to L.A. would not have been complete without a visit with my friend, Peter, actor/person extraordinairre. We met him for brunch on Sunday at the Farmer’s Market where he took this cool picture of me.  I think it’s a pretty fun but strange pic.  It reminds me of this picture of Bette Davis taken by photographer George Hurrell, where she told him later: that was the most revealing, vulnerable photo anyone has ever taken of me. Kind of like my photo, dontchathink?

So that was my weekend. This week i’m prepping for teaching (starts Monday), trying to write when I can, still reading Madame Bovary, trying to lose those 5 pounds I gained over the holidays, and trying to enjoy my last days of winter break.

And how was your week?

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Oh, and bought a new toy for Hermia!

(meet Ratzo–I got him from Ikea).