For What It's Worth

Remembering Swayze: My Dirty Dancing Story

Charlotte Safavi is an Iranian-American journalist who writes for numerous publications, including the Huffington Post. 

Everyone has a Dirty Dancing story. This is mine. In the mid-80s, a year out of Oxford University and a year into an investment-banking career at Manufacturers Hanover in London, I decided to dance. I quit my job, packed my bags and moved to Los Angeles. I wanted to cut a rug in Hollywood.

My first job was at Triad Artists, Inc., one of the principal talent agencies at the time. Among a large roster of clients, they represented a young actor called Patrick Swayze, best known for his ensemble character work in films The Outsiders andRed Dawn, and for his television part in the miniseries North and South. He was about to start shooting his first movie as a leading man--Dirty Dancing--for an indie film company called Vestron Pictures.

Like 'Baby' Houseman (Jennifer Grey's character in the movie), I was seduced. My Johnny Castle (Patrick Swayze's role of a lifetime) was Hollywood. The town dirty danced to a different beat and it did not take much to be smitten. As I shimmied up the ranks, from delivering scripts in the mailroom to getting on a desk as an agent's assistant (sort of a glorified secretary), I made the metamorphosis from agent trainee to motion picture literary agent.

After my promotion, my old boss Joe Rosenberg took me out on the town to introduce me to the players. The first breakfast I had at the famous Polo Lounge in The Beverly Hills Hotel was with Joe and Steve Reuther. At the time, Steve worked at Vestron Pictures and Dirty Dancing was his baby.

Even Jay Leno Needs An Insurance Policy

We all know how much NBC has riding on its debut of "The Jay Leno Show" in primetime.  You can read all about it in, like, a billion places.

Now, however, the truth can be told.  In the ultimate conspiracy theory, NBC had Jay cloned years ago to protect its comedy investment in case the unthinkable happened.  And now, as the new show prepares to go on-the-air, that investment gets his big break.  Or break-out, as it were.  You'll see.

It's "The Adventures of Jay Clone," a short video that stars Jonathan Zabel as "Junior" and Don Most as "Doc."  Did we mention there's a rubber chicken and a Leno mask?

The Adventures of Jay Clone - watch more funny videos

The video was directed by USC School of Cinematic Arts graduate Kareem Dimashkie.  Jonathan Zabel played Young Jay and Jay's Son in nearly a dozen "Tonight Show" appearances in the Clinton Years.  Trained in improvisation, Jonathan now lives and works in the heart of Silicon Valley.

"The Adventures of Jay Clone" was just picked by eGuiders as its "Featured Comedy Pick for the week of September 14 to 20."  It's also, as you can see, on "Funny or Die."  We hope, if you like it, that you'll visit that site, vote for it as "Funny" and list it as a "Favorite."  Thanks!

Run, Junior, Run!

The Adventures of Jay Clone on Vimeo

Back in the Clinton Years my oldest son, Jonathan, played Young Jay Leno on "The Tonight Show" about a dozen times. Now he's a USC film school grad (who just got a new job working for a major videogame company up in Silicon Valley) and he and his director buddy Kareem Dimashkie (with a throw-in by Jackie, me and our friend Don Most) put this video together in anticipation of the new "The Jay Leno Show." 
"The Adventures of Jay Clone" is based on the concept that Jay Leno was cloned by NBC years ago as an insurance policy to protect its comedy investment and now his young copy -- who's never had a date, driven a car or gone Jaywalking -- escapes to discover the real world and live out his genetic predisposition to comedy!

It stars Don Most as "Doc" and Jonathan Zabel as "Junior." You no doubt remember Don Most for his portrayal of Ralph Malph on the sitcom "Happy Days," something that's given him worldwide fans ever since.
This version of "The Adventures of Jay Clone" is hosted on Vimeo and can be watched in HD by clicking on the screen rather than just hitting play and watching it through this blog. Sometimes there are some streaming issues, but the quality is very good.

Life and Death at "The Wedge"

Maybe you've heard of "The Wedge" down at Newport Beach. It's a magnet for body surfers and it has been known to hurt, maim, paralyze and even kill people who brave its challenges in tough weather. That apparently happened July 24 when 50-year-old Monte Kevin Valantin of Lawndale slammed into the rocks after going into massive waves that supposedly were topping 20 feet. He got pulled out by lifeguards, made it to Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian and was declared dead.

Our friends -- Leslie & Peter -- live down there and sent us a picture Leslie took of these waves with her new camera lens. As you can see, the break was big enough to draw a crowd (but most people stood safely ashore and didn't go in to test the waters).

Apparently, summer in Newport Beach brings outrageous waves based on currents from around the globe (as far away as New Zealand) that roll powerfully toward us, building strength and eventually creating the dangerous Wedge experience. I'm not a surfer, and my body-surfing is limited to flopping about in small waves, but it seems that these waves bounce off the jetty's boulders and form the perfect shape that is intoxicating for bodysurfers.

Angelenos, for years, woke up to Rick Dees in the morning (replaced a few years back on KIIS by Ryan Seacrest). I remember that one of Dees' big pieces of advice he would always trot out for his listeners was, "Don't do anything that will get you killed." I know that can't be taken to heart in every instance -- if we did, then no one would have climbed Everest or gone to the Moon -- but, generally, I'm pretty much in synch when it comes to bodysurfing huge waves. It can get you killed and I'll just take a pass. I'll watch those from the sidelines or just appreciate a friend's photo. I was sorry to hear the news of the latest fatality. Sad.

The above photo was taken by Leslie Feibleman with a Nikon D50 Digital SLR camera and a Nikon AF Nikkor 70-30mm lens.

"Chasing a Dream" on Hallmark Channel

You know hard it must be to run a four-minute mile?  Now imagine doing it when you're still in high school, nobody supports you doing it and track isn't your sport in the first place.

That's the scenario we've set up for Cam Stiles in our Hallmark Channel film, "Chasing a Dream" which airs this Saturday at 9pm (8pm in Central time).  It's about a high school senior who runs a "sub-four" when nobody thinks he can or should, but he does it anyway.  It stars Treat Williams as the reluctant father/coach and Andrew Lawrence as the obsessed athlete/son.

 

Jackie and I wrote it originally as a project I would direct as an indie film but the WGA strike intervened and we sold it instead.  So, with the caveat that we wrote it, but did not direct, cast or produce it, we still think it came out as a very decent piece of family entertainment.

Here's a great article from Runner's World, written by long-time editor (and Boston Marathon winner) Amby Burfoot.  It includes the text of an interview he conducted this month with both Jackie and me and shows incredible respect for writers.  Go, Amby!

Here's another bit of coverage from Track and Field News.  This has a good bit of background on the mile race, and the four-minute-mile record.

Here's the Hallmark URL with a newly cut trailer.

Here's a look at the promotional video from the film.

Sub-fours in high school actually happened a few times in the 60s, then not again until Alan Webb did it in 2001, and not since then.  Over many years and incarnations, "Chasing a Dream" evolved from "Sub-Four" to "Finish Line" to "Miles from Nowhere" to its final Hallmark title.  One thing that always stayed the same was that the original runner was named John Van Horn in tribute to Bryce's close high school friend who died at the age of 18 in a car crash but is still remembered and missed.

Finally, because things always change (sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse) from "the page to the stage," here's a draft of our original screenplay, when it was known by its original title, "MILES FROM NOWHERE."

Download MILES-Zabel

For fun, if any of your runners would like to vote in our Movie Smackdown! poll pitting "Prefontaine" against "Without Limits," then CLICK HERE.

A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words...

This pretty much says it all... so, just this once, I will shut up and let it speak for itself. Happy New Year, America!

The Hollywood Cookbook: The Gift That Keeps on Giving!

Looking for a modestly priced gift for a special friend?  Want it to make them think of you over and over?  Would you like it to help make the world a better place. Well, that would be The Hollywood Cookbook. Every copy of it sends $5 straight off to a group of twenty charities, hand-chosen by each of the participating celebrities. It was just written up in this week's TV Guide article "The Goods: Gifts That Give Back." They ask the question: "Doing some last-minute holiday shopping? Consider a present that will make everyone happy."

If you click on the above image, it'll take you straight to the Amazon page where you can order the "Gourmand Award" edition of The Hollywood Cookbook.

If you want to really get into it, see the celebs and the recipes, etc., click here for a great website that has all things Hollywood Cookbook.  

At Least They Spelled My Name Right...

Google sent me an alert this morning that my name was in the New York Times.  It's an article called "World Falls for American Media, Even as It Sours on America" which pretty much explains the gist of the whole thing.  The author, Tim Arango, had called me up a few months ago to talk about such matters, based on the fact that I was chairman/CEO of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences when 9/11 hit.  He was interested in the fact that I'd attended those high-level Hollywood meetings that were called by Karl Rove in the immediate blow-back from the attacks. 

I'm not a big Karl Rove fan but, at the time, there was nothing insidious about the meetings.  After 9/11, everybody wanted to talk about what they could do to help.  Hollywood knows how to communicate and a lot of people out here were wondering if there was a piece of that in a solution.

In any case, here's my bit from the article:

Bryce Zabel, a television producer who was chairman of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences at the time and a participant in the 2001 meetings with the White House, argued then that the United States needed to regard itself like a consumer brand.

“Products like Coca-Cola are far more effectively branded around the globe than the United States itself,” he wrote in a memo that was circulated around Hollywood. “The American entertainment and communications industry has the technological and creative expertise to improve relations between our country and the rest of the world."

It seems like a perfectly fine quote, I think, except for the context which may cause some people to think I was advocating the dreaded "P" word, or propaganda.  So, for the record, I most emphatically was not doing that.

My point then, and now, is simply that while every freaking corporate enterprise in the entire damn world spends time, money and effort on their "brand," the United States of America, arguably one of the potentially strongest brands on the planet, acts as if it's an irrelevant concept for us.

Personally, I think we have taken a massive step forward in "re-branding" America by our election of Barack Obama.  Let's hope so.

READY TO BELIEVE: Free MP3 of Obama Fight Song!

Last January, while we were still on strike as members of the Writers Guild of America, my wife Jackie and I sat down in a Los Angeles coffee shop with our good friend, musician Cherish Alexander.

Before the coffee was cold, we decided, improbably given the time frame -- as a couple of striking screenwriters and a singer-composer -- to write, produce and distribute the song you'll soon hear.  It happened over a five day period and we released it immediately before the California primary.

So far, "Ready to Believe" has cumulatively had its video versions viewed close to 100,000 times on YouTube.  Plus, it's available on iTunes.  You, however, don't have to buy it in the closing days of the 2008 campaign.  We want you to download it for free and to send it to your friends.

It was written to stand-up for Barack to the Clinton campaign's charges claiming he wasn't ready for the presidency.  We find that the need for this song is as solidly right-on today as it was last February (only Clinton is on the team now and the argument's being made by John McCain).  It needed rebuttal then, and it needs rebuttal now. 

Please give it a listen.  Click the link below to just hear it.  Otherwise,right-click to actually... we'll say it again... download "Ready to Believe" for free.  Again, you have our express permission to download it and to give it away. 

Download_Ready_to_Believe_Song.mp3

Some have asked for a PDF of the actual lyrics.  Here you are:

Download_Ready_to_Believe_Lyrics.pdf

Here's the You Tube version:

Please also visit the web-page of singer-composer Cherish Alexander (http://www.cherishalexander.com/ready_to_believe/) where all the goodies are also available.  She and fellow producer Damian Valentine did an awesome job with this project as you can hear for yourself.

We know the hour is late but if you support Barack Obama, we'd urge you to join us and expose as many people as you can to this song.  Especially Obama volunteers.  We've received a good deal of email from campaign workers who thought it was like an anthemic "fight song" for the cause.  That's certainly what we intended it to be.

Remember to vote.  Even if the polls say he's ahead, you have to vote.  Take nothing for granted. 

Still fired up and ready-to-go for Obama!

Cherish Alexander, Jackie Zabel, Bryce Zabel

McCain's Brows Are More Than Furrowed

At Least He's Ready For His Close-Up

There's been a lot of talk about how eyebrows were raised over Sarah Palin being plucked from obscurity to serve as VP on the Republican ticket.  Now it appears that her running mate (remember him?  the McCain guy?) is having to play catch-up to compete.  In the issues of Time and Newsweek that just came out (September 8 cover date), there's a fine full-page picture of the Senator inside Newsweek and his mug gets the full cover treatment on Time.  Here they are: take a good look before we continue...

As a producer out here in Hollywood, I've studied my share of head shots while considering actors for parts.  While I was looking at McCain to see if he seemed up for the role, it hit me.  The man had all the grey hairs plucked out of his eyebrows. 

Now we always knew that McCain was a gutsy warrior but we never would have thought to apply the adjective plucky but there it is.  Somehow, John McCain got his picture taken for Newsweek and then must have gone off to Time to be photographed for the cover shot.  Along the way, somebody got rid of all those pesky white hairs because they are gone, baby, gone.  Because of our commitment to investigative journalism here at For What It's Worth, we have gone the extra mile.  Take a look yourself and you tell me if we have a Brow-gate on our hands or not?

Above: Newsweek | Below: Time

Look, I'm all for sartorial striving and all, but there is a little irony here.  Isn't John McCain the guy who "approved" the ads that tried to make Barack Obama seem like a lightweight by branding him with the "celebrity" brush and running pictures of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton next to his?  Then this same candidate runs out and plucks his brows for his big Time cover?

Did one of his consultants tell him that the grey in his eyebrows made him look, well, a little old?  Especially compared to his much younger new running mate?  Did the famously irritable McCain fuss and fume before agreeing?  Did the Secret Service have to inspect the tweezers first?  We just ask the questions, you decide.

Here's the biggest question.  If Barack Obama had done the exact same thing before his recent cover shoot, would any of the Republican speakers last night have missed the opportunity to use that against him in dismissive and contemptuous sound-bites?

Yeah.  Probably not.

Oh, well.  It's just another trivial issue that probably won't even make it past a news cycle.

Hair today, gone tomorrow...