Jailed!

Gotcha!  Relax...it's only in the movies, gang.  I got a call from Grant Wilfley to spend April 11th in Bedford Hills, New York at the prison there for a movie called The Bitter Pill.  I'm going to be a prison visitor, as far as I know...it would be more fun to be an inmate (only in the movies!), but frankly, an orange jumpsuit isn't my best look.  On the other hand, it might open up a whole new range of jobs for me.  I noticed when I went back to the email they sent me that nobody had mentioned what I was supposed to be wearing, and when I emailed back to ask, Melanie told me that they'd let me know when I called in the night before.  This is the way you do this background stuff...you get a heads up to keep the date open and then you call them the night before to get your actual call times and directions to the set or the location of the van pickup.  Which can get annoying as hell, because sometimes they don't know until quite late when you'll be needed the next day...it has to do with how many shots they were able to get in the day before, and if the shoot runs late, they just don't know.  I've had calls for Boardwalk when you didn't get the info until 2 in the morning. 

However, not knowing what I'm supposed to wear until the day before is annoying, since I'm supposed to call in after 8:30 pm.  This makes things a bit impossible if they want something I don't have in my closet.  Luckily, all movie sets have at least a small selection of costumes in case they decide they don't like what you're wearing, so I don't think there'll be a problem.  I'll just make sure I've got a representative selection of clothes clean and ready to go.  Jeans and a top, and nice slacks and a nicer top should do it, if they want me to be a visitor...I've noticed in the occasional news pictures you see of families arriving for prison visits, they tend to dress up just a bit.  Makes sense...if you only get to see your incarcerated husband once a month, you'd want to look decent, wouldn't you?

My birthday was fun, in a low key sort of way.  I met up with my friend Philippe at the Bistro, and he bought me a couple of beers, and then he left and Caesar appeared with our friends Dee-El and Mary about five minutes later and bought me drinks and gave me a lift home.  So that was nice, and I didn't end up sitting at home being depressed.  Eventually I'll get my big blowout birthday dinner at my favorite shabby little French joint...I can wait.

Meanwhile, I'm excited about the prison gig, not least because it's a fairly longish ride out into the country.  I so rarely go somewhere that doesn't involve an airplane that I think long rides in the country are great fun, and such a novelty.  Also, an hour's ride out and an hour's ride back go into my paycheck, which shouldn't be sneezed at.

Oh, and on a professional note, SAG (Screen Actors Guild) and AFTRA (American Federation of Radio and Television Artists) have FINALLY merged!  This means more work for everybody...yay!

Love, Wendy