Check out my Progressive Insurance tryout to "help Flo." http://tinyurl.com/yg2f3xc

It's so cold that the subway ran at a snail's pace. When I got to Penn station the odor from all the homeless people taking shelter from the cold was overwhelming. Very sad.

New York, NY (10031) Weather
Updated: Jan 30, 2010, 8:45am EST
Right Now Partly Cloudy 15° F
Feels Like: 0° F
Wind: From NW at 14mph

New York, NY Weather Updated: Jan 30, 2010, 2:25am EST Right Now Mostly Cloudy16°F Feels Like: 2° F Wind: From NW at 15mph gusting to 30mph

Thanks Dad! I can't get this silly "sore pussy song" out of my head now!! http://ping.fm/FpefQ

All of a sudden, it's snowing like it a winter blizzard this morning!

Hey peeps! I entered the Progressive Insurance contest to be Flo's helper at helpflo .com. Voting begins April 5. Here's my video entry: http://ping.fm/jjDpq

Another day another exercise in going through the motions:(

I am so glad I got away from my computer for a few hours and saw "Invictus." It was totally inspirational!!!!!!

I am so glad I got away from my computer for a few hours and saw "Invictus." It was totally inspirational!!!!!!

At the movies seeing "Invictus"

Neena Rose

 

My internet is moving at a "dial-up," "snails pace" today! It's driving me nutz:(

Just finished watching "Tyson" - loved it!

Wow! Netflix streaming on my HDTV - stunning, gorgeous, amazing!!! http://ping.fm/Bs6kA

We gonna have a good time tonight. Let's celebrate! It's all right!!!

NEWSFLASH: Sarah & Bristol Palin will br on Oprah at 4 pm - just saw it scroll across the bottom of the TV and thought everyone should know!!!!!

Off to see the Wizard . . .

Hedwig_and_the_angry_inch___Wig_in_a_box

video_player_embed_code_text

Casting Directors - Principal Roles/Background - New York

http://www.utdtheatricalservices.com/casting_hotline.htm



Updated 1/13/2010

Send Pictures and Resumes to:

1.

30 ROCK

Principals
Jennifer McNamara Shroff
Trey Lawson - Associate
Jessica Daniels - Associate
Jennifer McNamara Shroff Casting
NBC-TV, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, #1623E
New York, NY 10112

Background Actors
Barbara McNamara
Barbara McNamara Casting
249 West 34th Street, Suite 500
New York, NY 10001
212-645-6051
www.barbmcasting.com
30rock@barbmcasting.com
2.

ARE WE THERE YET

Principals
Todd Thaler
Janna Emig - Assistant
Todd Thaler Casting
c/o Actors Alliance
330 West 38th Street, #507
New York, NY 10018
3.

THE BEAUTIFUL LIFE
(Production wrapped, no present casting)

Principals
Geoffrey Soffer
Melissa Moss - Associate
Ian Ames - Assistant
Geoffrey Soffer Casting
Kaufman Astoria Studios
34-12 36th Street, 3rd Floor
Astoria, NY 11106

Background Actors
Central Casting NY
875 Sixth Avenue, 24th Floor
New York, NY 10001
646-205-8244
646-964-6512 (hotline)
www.centralcasting.org
4.

BOARDWALK EMPIRE

Principals
Meredith Tucker
Julie Schubert - Associate
Meredith Tucker Casting
330 West 38th Street, Suite 710
New York, NY 10018

Background Actors
Grant Wilfley
Grant Wilfley Casting
123 West 18th Street, 8th Floor
New York, NY 10011
646-747-1579; 212-685-3168 (hotline)
boardwalk@gwcnyc.com
www.gwcnyc.com
5.

BORED TO DEATH

Principals
Ann Goulder
Gayle Keller
Goulder/Keller Casting
HBO
1100 Avenue of the Americas, 15th Floor, Room 12
New York, NY 10036

Background Actors
Sylvia Fay/Lee Genick Casting
71 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10016
212-889-2626; 212-479-8569 (hotline)
www.sylviafaycasting.com
6.

BROTHERHOOD
(Production wrapped, no present casting)

Principals
Mele Nagler
Kristin Svenningson - Assistant
Melcap Casting
260 West 44th Street, 3rd Floor
New York, NY 10036
7.

DAMAGES

Principals
Julie Tucker
Ross Meyerson
Justin Borgstahl - Associate
Julie Tucker Casting
c/o Apostle
568 Broadway, Suite 301
New York, NY 10012

Background Actors
Sylvia Faye/Lee Genick Casting
71 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10016
212-889-2626; 212-479-8569 (hotline)
www.sylviafaycasting.com
8.

DELOCATED

Principals
Beth Bowling
Kim Miscia
Michael Rios
Aubrey Villareal - Assistant
Bowling/Miscia/Lubbe Casting
609 Greenwich Street, 6th Floor
New York, NY 10014
9.

DREAM STREET

Principals
Joey Grunfeld
Entertainment Brands Inc.
153 West 27th Street, Suite 1000
New York, NY 10001
10.

THE ELECTRIC COMPANY
(Production wrapped, no present casting)

Principals
Pat McCorkle
McCorkle Casting Ltd.
575 8th Avenue, 18th Floor
New York, NY 10018
11.

FAILURE TO FLY

Principals
Kerry Barden
Paul Schnee
Allison Estrin - Assistant
Barden-Schnee Casting
150 West 28th Street, Suite 402
New York, NY 10001
12.

THE FUGITIVE CHRONICLES

Principals
Kristian Sorge
Kristian Sorge Casting
100 Avenue of the Americas, Suite 6-42
New York, NY 10013
13.

THE GOOD WIFE

Principals
Mark Saks
Chrissy Fiorilli - Associate
Mark Saks Casting
c/o RSA Films
270 Lafayette Street, Suite 203
New York, NY 10012

Background Actors
Karen E. Etcoff
Kee Casting
P.O. Box 3175
Guttenberg, NJ 07093
201-854-6396; 212-465-7206 (hotline)
www.keecasting.biz
14.

GOSSIP GIRL

Principals
Beth Bowling
Kim Miscia
Nadia Lubbe
Aubrey Villareal - Assistant
Bowling/Miscia/Lubbe Casting
609 Greenwich Street, 6th Floor
New York, NY 10014

Background Actors
Sara Conte
Central Casting NY
875 Sixth Avenue, 24th Floor
New York, NY 10001
646-205-8244; 646-964-6512 (hotline)
gossipgirlbg@gmail.com
www.centralcasting.org
15.

GRAVITY

Principals
Kerry Barden
Paul Schnee
Allison Estrin - Assistant
Barden-Schnee Casting
150 West 28th Street, Suite 402
New York, NY 10001
16.

HOW TO MAKE IT IN AMERICA

Principals
Sheila Jaffe
Susan Abramson
Kathryn Zamora Benson - Assistant
Jaffe Casting
HBO
1100 Avenue of the Americas, 13th Floor, Room 49
New York, NY 10036

Background Actors
Todd Feldman
Central Casting NY
875 Sixth Avenue, 24th Floor
New York, NY 10001
646-205-8244; 646-964-6512 (hotline)
www.centralcasting.org
17.

IN TREATMENT
(Production wrapped, no present casting)

Principals
Alexa Fogel
Christine Kromer – Associate
Alexa Fogel Casting
c/o Actors Alliance
330 West 38th Street, #906
New York, NY 10018

Background Actors
Jeni Thornell
Jaime - Assistant
Central Casting NY
875 Sixth Avenue, 24th Floor
New York, NY 10001
646-205-8244; 646-964-6512 (hotline)
backgroundsubmissions@gmail.com
www.centralcasting.org
18.

LAW & ORDER

NBC, Wolf Films/Studios USA
Principals
Suzanne Ryan
Claire Traeger - Associate
Lynn Kressel Casting
Pier 62, Room 304
West 23rd Street & Hudson River
New York, NY 10011

Background Actors
Ali Merhi
Central Casting New York
875 Sixth Avenue, 24th Floor
New York, NY 10001
646-205-8244; 646-964-6512 (hotline)
www.centralcasting.org

19.

LAW & ORDER: CRIMINAL INTENT

NBC, Wolf Films/Studios USA
Principals
Kimberly Hope
Faryn Einhorn - Associate
Lynn Kressel Casting
Pier 62, Room 311
West 23rd Street & Hudson River
New York, NY 10011

Background Actors
Tiffany Moon
Central Casting New York
875 Sixth Avenue, 24th Floor
New York, NY 10001
646-205-8244; 646-964-6512 (hotline)
criminalintent8@gmail.com
www.centralcasting.org
20.

LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT

NBC, Wolf Films/Studios USA
Principals
Jonathan Strauss
Philip Huffman - Associate
Lynn Kressel Casting
Pier 62, Room 304
West 23rd Street & Hudson River
New York, NY 10011

Background Actors
Grant Wilfley
Grant Wilfley Casting
123 West 18th Street, 8th Floor
New York, NY 10011
646-747-1579; 212-685-3168 (hotline)
svu@gwcnyc.com
www.gwcnyc.com
21.

LOUIE

Principals
Ann Goulder
Gayle Keller
Goulder/Keller Casting
HBO
1100 Avenue of the Americas
15th Floor, Room 12
New York, NY 10036
22.

MERCY

Principals
Suzanne Smith Crowley
Jessica Kelly - Associate
Chrystie Street Casting
55 Chrystie Street, Suite 501
New York, NY 10002

Background Actors
Ali Merhi
Central Casting NY
875 Sixth Avenue, 24th Floor
New York, NY 10001
646-205-8244; 212-964-6512 (hotline)
amerhi@centralcasting.org
www.centralcasting.org
23.

NAKED BROTHERS BAND
(Production wrapped, no present casting)

Principals
Laura Maxwell-Scott
Torey Schantz - Assistant
Laura Maxwell-Scott Casting
Kidzhouse Ent./Broadway Stages
259 Green Street
Brooklyn, NY 11222

Background Actors
Barbara McNamara
Barbara McNamara Casting
249 West 34th Street, Suite 500
New York, NY 10001
212-645-6051
www.barbmcasting.com
talent@barbmcasting.com
24.

NURSE JACKIE

Principals
Julie Tucker
Ross Meyerson
CJ Molidor - Associate
Julie Tucker Casting
c/o Apostle Pictures
568 Broadway, Suite 301
New York, NY 10012

Background Actors
Todd Feldman
Central Casting NY
875 Sixth Avenue, 24th Floor
New York, NY 10001
646-205-8244; 646-964-6512 (hotline)
www.centralcasting.org
25.

RESCUE ME

Principals
Julie Tucker
Ross Meyerson
CJ Molidor - Associate
Julie Tucker Casting
c/o Apostle Pictures
568 Broadway, Suite 301
New York, NY 10012

Background Actors
Barbara McNamara
Barbara McNamara Casting
249 West 34th Street, Suite 500
New York, NY 10001
212-645-6051
www.barbmcasting.com
talent@barbmcasting.com

26.

ROYAL PAINS
(Production wrapped, no present casting)

Principals
Bonnie Finnegan
Steve Jacobs
Finnegan/Jacobs Casting
c/o Actors Alliance
330 West 38th Street, Suite 507
New York, NY 10018

Background Actors
Grant Wilfley
Grant Wilfley Casting
123 West 18th Street, 8th Floor
New York, NY 10011
646-747-1579; 212-685-3168 (hotline)
www.gwcnyc.com
27.

SHERRI

Principals
Rosalie Joseph
Mia Cusumano - Associate
Rosalie Joseph Casting
c/o Hotel Pennsylvania
401 Seventh Avenue, Grand Ballroom
New York, NY 10001

Background Actors
Sylvia Fay/Lee Genick Casting
71 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10016
212-889-2626; 212-479-8569 (hotline)
www.sylviafaycasting.com
28.

TRUE BLOOD
(Production wrapped, no present casting)

Principals
Kelli Lerner
Kelli Lerner Casting
Endeavor Studios
12 West 21st Street
NYC 10010
29.

UGLY BETTY

Principals
Geoffrey Soffer
Candice Alustiza - Associate
Geoffrey Soffer Casting
Silvercup Studios East
34-02 Starr Avenue, 2nd Floor
Long Island City, NY 11101

Background Actors
Heather Comer
Deanna Gallucio
Comer & Gallucio Casting, Inc.
440 Ninth Avenue, 8th Floor, Suite 34
New York, NY 10001
212-404-3187
candgcasting@gmail.com
www.myspace.com/candgcasting
30.

WHITE COLLAR

Principals
Julie Tucker
Ross Meyerson
Kim Krakauer - Associate
Julie Tucker Casting
c/o Apostle Pictures
568 Broadway, Suite 301
New York, NY 10012

Background Actors
Central Casting NY
875 Sixth Avenue, 24th Floor
New York, NY 10001
646-205-8244; 646-964-6512 (hotline)
www.centralcasting.org

"The Most Hated Family In America" - BBC Documentary

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/the-most-hated-family-in-america/

Voting now closed-16th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards®, airing live 1.23 on TNT @ 8pm TOTALLY ANNOYED @ MYSELF-MISSED DEADLINE 2DAY @ 12PM

Rules of Attraction - "Faith" Dance Scene

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZAiOHn2xVo

Casting Directors - Principal Roles - New York

http://www.inbaseline.com:80/project.aspx?project_id=194940

Goin' 4 quick run & listening 2 LaDY GAgAs"BAD ROMANCE"which is stuck in my head since @michelletrachtenberg kept singing it on set saturday

Top 5 Drag Music Moments (Songs/Videos)

http://www.newnownext.com/2010/01/15/drag-history-month-continues-its-the-top-5-drag-moments-in-music-boy-george-rupaul-hedwig-beyond/#more-4375



INSERT HERE

VH1 TV Shows | Music Videos | Celebrity Photos | News & Gossip

Posted on January 15th, 2010 by John Polly in Music, National Drag History Month, Style
Drag History Month Continues! It’s the Top 5 Drag Moments in Music: Boy George, RuPaul, Hedwig & Beyond!

450x300_DragMusicCombo
Music and fierce queens (like RuPaul, Freddie, Boy George & Sylvester) make the people come together.

Hey chickens! Drag History Month is in full-swing! Last Friday we served up the Top 5 Drag Moments on Film, and today it’s all about the music. Yes, we’re talking Boy George, the men of Queen, Annie Lennox maybe… And big ups to Sylvester and RuPaul of course.

Want some recent drag music video hotness? Check out the playlist on LogoTV.com which features NYC’s own Pepper Mint, Bebe Zahara Benet, Kelly (and her “Shoes”) and yes some recent RuPaul!

Which were our faves? Read on!

Hedwig-Wig

5. Hedwig “Wig in a Box”

John Cameron Mitchell’s wiggy Hedwig anthem is a classic about how the right wig and some blush can change your entire world view. Gorgeous!

Queen-I-Want-to-Break-Free

4. Queen “I Want to Break Free”

Big time rock icon and big time homo Freddie Mercury may be the gayest rock star most loved by beer-can crushing metalheads worldwide. And in the video for this tune, Mercury and his Queen cohorts held nothing back when they decided to drag it up as desperate housewives. Wisteria Lane has nothing on these beauties… And vacuuming in heels was never the same since.

Karma-Chameleon

3. Culture Club “Karma Chameleon”

Even my conservative Republican dad was a fan of Boy George and “Karma Chameleon” back in the 80s. When Culture Club emerged, Boy was a beaming, charming icon of androgyny and gender-f*ckery, and the mass media didn’t know what to think… So they just sang along to the band’s irresistible pop, proving that music really does make the people come together!

Sylvester-Mighty-Real

2. Sylvester “You Make Me Feel Mighty Real”

Before RuPaul and before Boy George there was disco diva Sylvester. He was “out” before “out” was even an option. He was glam, and wore makeup and caftans and sequins and he was truly fierce. Basically he was fearless. He was disco!

Supermodelsingle

1. RuPaul “Supermodel”

And then came Ru. This 1992 hit catapulted drag out of the clubs into the homes and radios and TV screens of America. RuPaul, in one fell swoop – thanks to a brilliant song by DJ/producer maestro Larry Tee and a hilarious and glam video – seduced America and showed how gorgeous, classy, funny and fierce drag could be. She was seven feet (in heels!) of attitude and whimsy and she was irresistible. This led to Ru’s TV show, movie appearances, and crowned her as not just a gay icon, but a pop culture icon.

Suddenly, we could all dream of being supermodels. I mean, if it wasn’t for Ru, would we even have a Tyra? I don’t think so. All hail the queen!

And now… A few more great music moments either for, by or about queens…

Aerosmith “Dude Looks Like a Lady”

Steven Tyler and the boys rocked out with their celebration of men got up as girls… Somehow this tune made drag-love safe for frat boys everywhere…

Garbage – “Cherry Lips (Go Baby Go!)”

Shirley Manson and the boys are all about a pretty boy glammed up. Hotness!

Lou Reed “Take a Walk on the Wild Side”

NYC rock legend Lou Reed gives props to Holly Woodlawn and Candy Darling, drag and trans icons for all time.

Gloria Gaynor “I Am What I Am”

Disco diva Gloria Gaynor served up the pop hit version of the classic “love yourself” anthem from Broadway’s La Cafe aux Folles.

And there are plenty more…

Jeffree Star. Gloria Estefan’s “Everlasting Love” video. Annie Lennox’s “Little Bird” video. And the Pointer Sisters dressed as men in their “Dare Me” video… Tell me your faves!!!! And classics like “Lola” by the Kinks and David Bowie’s homage to glam boys “Lady Stardust.”

Rock on, Queens!

Top 5 Drag Films

http://www.newnownext.com/2010/01/08/drag-history-month-celebrates-the-top-5-drag-movie-moments-ever-plus-rupaul%E2%80%99s-picks/#more-4292">






Posted on January 8th, 2010 by John Polly in Movies, National Drag History Month, TV
Drag History Month Celebrates the Top 5 Drag Movie Moments Ever! Plus, RuPaul’s Picks!


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The one and only drag film legend, Divine. Heaven, indeed.

I hope you kids are living for Drag History Month. Did you catch Bebe Zahara Benet’s fierce (and globally aware) PSA? Was it better than Varla Jean Merman’s from last year?

All month long we’ll be counting off some of the biggest drag moments that pop culture has ever seen, and to get things started here’s a quick list of the Top 5 Drag Movie Moments Ever. And we also quizzed drag super-legend RuPaul to sound off on her faves, too; check those out at the end of the post.

And speaking of Ru, it goes without saying that Starrbooty (starring Ru and NYC drag legends such as Sweetie, Lahoma Van Zandt, Lady Bunny and an early Candis Cayne) transcends any and all drag top fives…

But anyway, here we go!

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5. Tim Curry in The Rocky Horror Picture Show

He’s just a sweet transvestite from transexual Transylvania. What more is there to say about Dr. Frank-n-Furter? Tim Curry revolutionized drag, glam rock, musicals, fishnet hose and horror movies all at once by stepping into those heels in The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

This ain’t pretty girl drag. It’s almost gender-f*ckery at its finest. And who would have ever believed it would end up playing midnight movie houses, spawning a later Broadway hit, and enticing all manner of Americans into exploring their blood-thirsty drag-tastic sides. All that… And a singing Susan Sarandon!

Watch "Sweet Transvestite!"


Up next…

350x520_the+queen+1968

4. The Queen

This documentary from 1967 was revolutionary for its time, taking folks behind the scenes of a pre-Stonewall drag pageant in New York City. The synopsis for The Queen begins: “Jack is 24, sometimes he's a drag queen named Sabrina. In 1967, as Sabrina, he's the mistress of ceremonies at a national drag queen contest in New York City.” And if you’ve been out and about in the last decade or so in Manhattan, you’ve encountered the Mother Flawless Sabrina herself—and consider yourself blessed.

300x450_FlawlessSabrina
Mother Flawless Sabrina today… Attagirl!

Anyway, The Queen is a great, gritty docu-look at old-school drag fabulousness, featuring drag legends of their day such as Crystal LaBeija, Harlow and International Chrysis. Watch the opening clip of The Queen.

Ready for a frock on a rock?

400x560_PriscillaDVD

3. The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert

It may be the best road trip movie of all time. And it just happens to involve two drag queens, their trans godmother, a busload of ABBA songs (and some archival ABBA feces), countless sequins and wigs, and ping-pong balls shot out of a sexy lady’s vag.

Yup, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, somehow took drag from being a gaudy late-night taboo to a feel-good global movie sensation. It hit about two years after RuPaul’s “Supermodel” was romancing the airwaves, and the combined effect was magical. It also inspired more drag movies to be made (Paging To Wong Foo…).

450x300_PriscillaBlueFeathe
Terence Stamp, Guy Pearce & Hugo Weaving take the stage…

Plus, the musical numbers are divine. “I Will Survive” done by campfire in the outback; “I’ve Never Been to Me” and “Saved the Best for Last” getting poignant onstage treatments; and CeCe Peniston’s “Finally” got served up as the show-stopping number it was always meant to be.

But most of all Priscilla, was the story of 2 gay guys and a tranny just looking for love, acceptance and having some kicks along the way. They were sweet, bitchy, grumpy, lovelorn and caring. Just like us!

Watch the Priscilla trailer…

The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert Hugo Weaving Terence Stamp | Movie Trailers

Now serving realness…

375x550_ParisIsBurning

2. Paris Is Burning

Paris Is Burning is easily one of the fiercest films ever made. Jennie Livingston’s chronicle of Harlem ball culture in the late 1980s has been controversial (Did she take advantage of her subjects? Were they ever compensated as allegedly promised?), but it also did a dazzling job of introducing the world to voguing, the concept of “houses” and “balls” and most obviously, it introduced a new vernacular of ferocity to the world, gay and otherwise. For the first time, a massive audience got to see courageous, resilient, gay and gorgeous African-American drag queens up close and personal. They served, they read, they threw shade, they walked, they “owned EVERYTHING.”

Watch the first segment of Paris Is Burning.

The Houses of Xtravaganza, of LaBeija, of Ninja… Legends were celebrated and the quotes and heart and humor abounded. And we met gorgeous creatures trying to find a little glamour in harsh and hellacious New York City.

It’s hard to scratch the surface of how monumental this film is. Just buy or rent it and get schooled. “Learn it, and learn it well…”

Pepper LaBeija. Dorian Corey. Octavia St. Laurent. Venus Xtravaganza. And Willi Ninja (see the clip below)… Legends all. May they all rest in peace, glamorously.

Watch Willi Ninja explain the origins of voguing in Paris Is Burning.


400x250_Dorian-corey
Paris Is Burning's legendary Dorian Corey. Don't look in her closet.

Dorian Corey had one of the most poignant quotes in movies ever in Paris Is Burning, with this bit about dreams of fame and how they end up…
I always had hopes of being a big star. But as you get older, you aim a little lower. Everybody wants to make an impression, some mark upon the world. Then you think, you've made a mark on the world if you just get through it, and a few people remember your name. Then you've left a mark. You don't have to bend the whole world. I think it's better to just enjoy it. Pay your dues, and just enjoy it. If you shoot an arrow and it goes real high, hooray for you.

400x250_Venus-xtravaganza
God bless Venus Extravaganza. "Touch the skin, Sweetie. Touch the skin. You CAN'T HANDLE IT."


450x450_octavia-saint-laure
The gorgeous Octavia St. Laurent.

And finally…

350x550_divine-pink-flaming

1. Anything starring Divine

Divine didn’t invent drag, she just brought it screaming and flailing out of the closet and into the light as a subversive, twisted, hilarious revolutionary form of art and expression. Divine personified the fearless, foul-mouthed but good-natured and game-for-anything drag queen that we’ve seen on bar stages and in films now for decades.

Divine was a clown, but also a brave pioneer pushing boundaries. John Waters realized this, and he put his best friend front-and-center of his movies (which were always a manic critique and satire of corny American values), turning Divine into a screen icon who could personify all the ribald and raucous about queer America.

375x550_femaletroublemar08

Pink Flamingos. Female Trouble. Polyester. Lust in the Dust. Hairspray. In all of these Divine (nee Harris Glen Milstead) was our Bette Davis, our Lana Turner, our Joan Crawford, our Sofia Lorne and Rosalind Russell and Mary Tyler Moore, all rolled up in one.

And she ate dog poop on-camera, in real time. If that doesn’t shoot you to the top of a list for anything, then I don’t know what does.

425x600_DivineGraceBoys
Grace Jones and other fans pay proper homage to Divine…

Now… Watch the trailers for Divine's three biggest films: Pink Flamingos, Female Trouble and Polyester. Long live Divine!!!!

And now…

Ru-starrbooty-2
RuPaul (seen here in Starrbooty) has gotta few more film picks you need to remember…

RuPaul loved all of these Top 5 picks. But get a look at a few of her own favorites…

Some Like It Hot
Tootsie
To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar
the original La Cage aux Folles
Outrageous w/Craig Russell
Johnny Depp in Before Night Falls
Victor/Victoria
and Hedwig and the Angry Inch

Start watching & give drag props! Happy Drag History Month!

Zip Car is the DEVIL! I reserved a car from 4-5:30 yesterday and they are telling me that I was 9 minutes late and charged me $50 bucks!!!

I get pet food delivered for $1 & they charge another $2 for "fuel" on top of the price of the dog food. Am I STILL supposed to tip the guy?

I have to go rent a Zip Car & drag my a** to NJ now to get my cell phone which I left at work on Saturday. What a drag! :(

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood, a beautiful day 4 a neighbor would U B mine? Could U B mine? Watching an uplifting flick-Valkerie

GREAT! I was so proud of myself 4 plugging my cell in to recharge b4 I left set & THEN forgot the damn thing there! I'm sure it's gone now:(

want your bad romance . . .

It's a heat wave in NYC! 48 degrees out right now. I actually went for a run this morning OUTside;)

About to watch the SAG screener of "An Education." The screeners alone make paying those SAG dues worth it;)!

It's official! SVU will air on Wednesday nights after the Winter Olympics for TWO HOURS!!! Repeats at 9 pm first followed by new episodes at 10 pm! Later Leno - much!!!

Watching the SAG screener of "Julie & Julia."

Watching "Precious."

The guy upstairs is a good singer but doesn't SHUT UP! SO I am playing AND singing Madonna's Celebration CD as I scan pix 4 Mom

Major Bombshell Tonight! My mother told me that I'm part Jewish!!! Apparently her Dad's Mom was Jewish! Why she decided to tell me tonight after all these years I will never understand; )

So excited Just got a SAG screener of "Precious"which I've been wanting to see. Will watch tonight when I get back from visiting my parents.

Up late watching "Public Enemies" on DirecTV on Demand.

"Stayin' Alive" in 2010, in the cold, in NYC with the Bee Gees . . . http://ping.fm/n2A8s

Just gave Desi & Mona baths. Hopefully they'll stay clean for a day or two ;)

Screening a copy of "Up in the Air" courtesy SAG Awards starring George Clooney in honor of Daphne-who would be here tonight if she could:)

It's 25° out I decided to stay in & watch movies. Watching "Frailty" a thriller from '02 with Mathew McConaughey & Bill Paxton. Weird flick!

I got in the 1/2 Marathon through the lottery!!! It's in March this year so it won't be as brutal as it was last August:) http://ping.fm/UCMEe

Michael Jackson's Last Close-Up (Ben Evenstad) Entertainment & Culture: vanityfair.com

Michael Jackson's Last Close-Up Entertainment & Culture: vanityfair.com
Postmortem

Christopher Weiss wants to be a doctor, but he is not, at first glance, a dream candidate for medical school. He went to junior college and got mediocre grades—and then he spent the better part of the next decade trying to make up for his feckless youth. Getting his bachelor’s degree at U.S.C., doing breast-cancer lab research, working as an E.M.T., and getting his paramedic’s license, the 29-year-old slowly built a résumé that could impress admissions boards. But he always worried that he wasn’t saving enough of his income, that med school would require him to take on a crushing load of debt. Then, in 2007, his boyhood friend Ben Evenstad, also 29, offered Weiss a chance to make a lot of money. When Evenstad co-founded the photo agency National Photo Group, he hired Weiss and taught him how to be a paparazzo.

Though Weiss says he’s not very interested in celebrities, he came to enjoy the job, especially when he got to shoot Michael Jackson. “From the first time I saw him in person, at a Barnes & Noble, when he was wearing Band-Aids on his face, I was mesmerized,” Weiss says. His boss, Evenstad, shares the fascination: “As a pap, you spend most of your time chasing sex symbols, but M.J. was different, almost like a Howard Hughes character,” he says. “With the masks and the umbrellas and the mystery, I thought Michael was more interesting than any other celebrity, and he has more interesting fans than any other celebrity—this group, mostly female, who would follow him all over the world. If he went to Ireland, France, Bahrain, Neverland, they were there. The same individuals. Nobody else had what he had. I set out to document why.”

Evenstad started as a pap in 1999 (he was also a professional autograph collector at the time), and he worked for a photo agency that questioned the amount of time he spent chasing Jackson, during a period when photos of the singer were not commanding premium prices. “For me, it was kind of a fan thing. As a fan, I wanted to get his photo. It wasn’t until 2003 when his legal troubles got bad that pictures of him started to be worth a lot again,” Evenstad says.

Although this may sound self-justifying, it is in earnest. I have known Evenstad for eight years—I wrote about him for The New York Times Magazine, in 2001—and from the day we met, he named Jackson as his favorite quarry.

Jackson’s most devoted fans recognized a fellow enthusiast in Evenstad, and they developed a mutually beneficial relationship, exchanging tips with one another about the singer’s comings and goings.

National Photo Group, from the beginning, “wanted to be the Michael Jackson agency,” Evenstad says. “There’s always money to be made with Michael, so we started shooting him every day.” Last fall, when Jackson moved into the Bel-Air Hotel, in Los Angeles, Christopher Weiss and another photographer were assigned to be, as Weiss puts it, “soldiers of the sit.” He, too, became friendly with the singer’s core group of fans: mostly young, attractive, European women.

Jackson and one of his many young female fans, October 2008. Despite his penchant for wearing masks, he was not afraid of physical contact with his admirers. By Dean/National Photo Group.

Weiss, whose voice has the clear, generous intelligence of a Boy Scout, remembers, “The girls would huddle outside the hotel gate that was closest to Jackson’s bungalow, sitting very quietly so that security would not find them. And sometimes Michael would come out and say hello. One time he handed out five handwritten letters that said things like ‘I can feel your energy through the walls. You inspire me so much. I love you all. Thank you for being there. Thank you for being my friend. Thank you for loving me. With all the love in my heart, Michael Jackson.’ I was always impressed by that, how deeply he seemed to care for these girls. When he hugged one of them, he would put one hand on her neck, behind her head, that extra-comforting move like you would do to a person you know. The writing in those letters had a style that was personal, deep, flowery, ornate. It was not ‘Thanks guys. Have a good night. I hope you like the music.’”

This, too, may sound like a sentimental exaggeration, but it is not. I spent a week with the women that Weiss and Evenstad are talking about, while researching Starstruck, a book I wrote about relationships between celebrities and fans. No star was more generous to fans (every member of the core group of Jackson fans that I met had, at some point, been invited into his house to have dinner or to watch movies and hang out), and no group of fans treated one another with more generosity than these women.

“To figure out who would get the letters that Michael wrote to the group,” Weiss says, “the girls would draw straws. They would write their names on pieces of paper and throw them in my camera bag, and I would reach in and draw names. The girl who got the letter would take it and make photocopies and give them to all of the others.”

Two notes Jackson reportedly wrote to fans at the Los Angeles hotel he was staying at last November. “I truly love all of you[.] I am recording tonight, for all of you, you are my true inspiration forever. I am living for you, and the children,” he wrote in one. And “You make me sooo happy.… The sky is the limit. Higher consciousness always.… I love you. Michael Jackson.”

Last December, National became the first photo agency to learn the address of the mansion Jackson was renting on North Carolwood Drive, in the Holmby Hills section of Los Angeles. Evenstad, who was also friendly with members of Jackson’s staff, managed to keep the location a secret for a couple of weeks. Throughout the winter and spring, even when no one else was around, there was almost always at least one photographer from National staking out the gates alongside the die-hard fans.

On June 25, National sent a photographer named Alfred Ibanez to the house. Just after noon, Ibanez called Evenstad, panicked: “There is an ambulance here. Get your video camera and get here now.”

On the way to the scene, Evenstad called Weiss and the rest of his photographers on their cell phones, ordering them to Jackson’s house immediately. Weiss, who was staking out Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s driveway (the couple had spent the previous night at the Hollywood Roosevelt hotel, Pitt had just returned home in his black Prius, and Weiss was waiting in hopes of getting a shot of Jolie, as well), raced 7.9 miles to Jackson’s. He arrived to find the National photographers (the only paps there) talking to two fans and three autograph collectors who’d been in front of the house all morning. Weiss saw an ambulance inside the gates and a fire truck parked on the street. Ibanez had zoomed in through the window of the fire truck with his telephoto lens and snapped a picture of the call screen, which provided a few details about the situation inside. At this point, Weiss’s experience as an E.M.T. came in handy. He read from the digital image: “50-year-old male … not breathing … ”

“That told me this was probably serious,” Weiss says, “and not just an anxiety attack like he’s had in the past.” Still, he adds, “you can never know exactly what ‘not breathing’ means at that point. It’s laypeople being quoted in a clinical context.” The more time passed, the less serious Weiss figured Jackson’s problems must be. “We were there for 20 minutes,” he says, “and if you’ve got a full arrest”—when a patient really has stopped breathing—“the paramedics usually load and go within 8 to 10 minutes.”

Having been scooped in the past, Evenstad knew anything could happen. As the ambulance started backing down the driveway toward the gate, he barked orders at his guys: “This might be the biggest picture ever, so get up to the windows of that vehicle and shoot. I don’t care if you can’t see. Just shoot.” When he saw Weiss standing a foot from the window, he worried that Weiss would get nothing more than a picture of the reflection of his own camera flash. Weiss says, “Ben told me, ‘Put your lens against the window, and shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot.’”

“We couldn’t see inside the ambulance,” Weiss continues. “For all I knew when I was taking the pictures, Michael could have been sitting up on a gurney with oxygen on.”

The National photographers jumped in two cars that followed the Jackson entourage’s two blue Escalades that followed the screaming ambulance to the emergency room at U.C.L.A. medical center—and by then, TMZ and other paps were on the scene. When Evenstad rushed the ambulance, one of Jackson’s bodyguards tried to block his camera and said, “‘C’mon man. Don’t do this. This isn’t cool,’” and Evenstad said, “‘When it’s this big, we have to,’ and I ran around to the other side, because at a certain point there’s no delicacy. We gotta do what we gotta do.”

Weiss saw a look on the guards’ faces that made him believe something was really wrong: “They were being aggressive, but it was remorseful aggressiveness. ‘Please guys, please just stop.’ They kept saying ‘please.’”

By then, Weiss had checked the last few frames he’d shot through the ambulance window, and all he saw was a reflection on the glass. “I thought, I didn’t get it. I was depressed that I missed a shot that could have been a big deal.”

Evenstad collected the memory cards from everybody’s cameras and headed to National’s office to edit the images. Not long after, he called Weiss again: “Chris, you have made up for every knucklehead maneuver you have ever done. We have a usable frame of M.J. in the back”—the now ubiquitous shot of Jackson strapped to a gurney, his face shown in profile as one paramedic attempts chest resuscitation and another pumps oxygen into his mouth.

At this point, National’s paps were still in an ethical twilight zone. Was the picture they’d taken no more than an intimate shot of Michael Jackson’s most recent histrionics? (“This is Michael we’re talking about,” Evenstad says. “Crazy shit is run-of-the-mill.”) Or, as they were beginning to dread—with an unsettling edge of excitement—did they have something more significant on their hands?

They were still editing the shots when TMZ, at first, and then the TV networks reported that Jackson was dead. Weiss, who was in National’s office by then, says that everyone stopped briefly and looked at one another, stunned. Then, Evenstad says, “something clicks in, and you just start working again like a machine. You have to sell this. And you have to not shortchange yourself. We didn’t make him die. Whatever happened to him physically happened because of what he was doing. We were only there to report the goings-on of his. The last thing I want on earth was for him to die.”

Adorer and adored trade waves as Jackson heads to a doctor’s appointment in Beverly Hills, February 10, 2009. From National Photo Group.

The morning after Jackson’s death, Weiss says, he was “happy because we got the picture. I took the last picture of Michael Jackson, ever. Because we had, as much as a photographer could for the last six months of his life, a relationship with Michael. There were days, like when he went to the doctor’s office sometimes, when we would just put our cameras down and visit with him. It’s weird to say this, as paparazzi, because the world can’t stand us, even though they can’t put our magazines down, but there was a closeness that our photographers had with Michael. If there was any fate to getting the shots, maybe that was it. We didn’t go out celebrating. We just watched the news all night.”

How does it feel, knowing that Jackson might well have been dead when the picture was taken? Weiss struggles to formulate an answer, then says, “I am glad, if somebody had to take that photo, that it was me. But I would rather it not have happened. I’d rather have a photo of him carrying his kids piggyback in the park, which is something that’s never been shot and I used to hope for. I understand the magnitude of the photo and that it has a kind of place in history. But it sucks. It just sucks.”

This ambivalence was eating at both of the photographers the day after Jackson died. Evenstad, who didn’t sleep that night, says, “I’m not a morbid person. I don’t want to celebrate someone’s death because I’m making money. I wish Michael wasn’t dead. And I would do better, business-wise, if he were still alive. But given that he died, I am not sorry that we got the last photo. That’s something that the world wants to see. It took skill and effort to get that photo, and for that I’m proud. But we are in mourning.”

He and Weiss were both worried about the fans. A few of them had been texting some of National’s photographers during the night: “I am dead inside,” one message read. “Nothing means anything.”

“For the last 18 hours, we have been playing M.J. songs, and we have a poster in the window of our office that reads ‘R.I.P. King,’” Evenstad said at the time. “And look, I’m still stunned. It hasn’t hit me yet. He was the only celebrity that, if you were devoted enough, he would let you into his house. You think somebody could go to Bruce Willis’s house and say, ‘I love you, I love you,’ that you’d get in? He’d call the police. That’s what all of them would do. All but Michael. If you said ‘I love you, I love you’ to Michael, he would assume you meant you loved him, and he would let you in.”

Jackson’s death leaves a void not only in the fans’ lives but also in Evenstad’s. As much as he may mourn the singer, though, Evenstad also mourns the rare complexity of relationships that surrounded the King of Pop. “This is what hit me halfway through the night: What do I do now? Chase fucking Zac Efron around?,” Evenstad asks. “What is the point?”

Christopher Weiss plans to retire from the paparazzi if he gets into medical school this fall. By the end of the weekend, his photograph of Michael Jackson in the back of the ambulance had grossed sales in the high six figures, with many foreign sales still pending. The first, and most notorious of these sales was closed during my conversation with Evenstad, when a bicycle messenger was pedaling across London, delivering a paper check—for about $500,000—from OK! magazine to National’s U.K. lawyer. Yesterday, the New York Post’s “Page Six” called Weiss’s photo “ghoulish,” reported that some OK! staffers were outraged by the purchase, and suggested that Jay-Z and Sean Combs may organize a boycott of the magazine. Combs’s publicist denied the rumor, and it’s unclear how much controversy the shot may inspire—but this image is sure to have a long and prosperous life. Frank Griffin, one of the deans of Hollywood paparazzi, was quoted as saying the shot would earn $1 million. That should go a long way toward paying tuition.

In January, Weiss went from commission to salary with National, he says, not quite able to hide his disappointment. But he’ll probably make out fine. Ben Evenstad explains, “Our whole staff will get bonuses on this. Once we exceed quarterly sales goals, everybody gets a piece of the pie. When we created that system, we never figured that a picture would ever make this much money. The bonuses might be six figures. If not, then damn close.”

Michael Joseph Gross is the author of Starstruck: When a Fan Gets Close to Fame.

New Years Resolution: Skinny Jeans Fat Wallet!!!

Find Jobs - EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT TO CEO AND PRESIDENT Jobs in New York, New York

Find Jobs - EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT TO CEO AND PRESIDENT Jobs in New York, New York

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Another day - another job interview ;)

Censored Version of The Onion's "Slut Spill" VH1 spoof video. I played a BG cop & paramedic. WARNING PROFANITY: http://ping.fm/m5GX7

Joan Rivers is practically in tears on Larry King 'cause she got kicked off a flight 'cause her passport says Joan Rosenberg aka Joan Rivers!

Hollywood Bandit - Scott Scurlock

Surrounded by police, William Scott Scurlock, the "Hollywood Bandit," commits suicide in Seattle on November 28, 1996.

On November 27, 1996, William Scott Scurlock (1955-1996), dubbed "Hollywood" by the police and the "Hollywood Bandit" by the press because of his penchant for theatrical disguises, attempts to rob Seafirst Bank in Lake City of $1.08 million. It is his 15th bank robbery in the Seattle area in four and one-half years, and the Puget Sound Violent Crime Task Force has been awaiting his next attempt. Police spot Scurlock and his two accomplices in their getaway vehicle and a chase ensues. During a gun battle, Scurlock manages to escape on foot, leaving his wounded accomplices behind to be captured. He hides overnight inside a small camper in the backyard of a nearby home, but the following day is seen inside by its owners, who call the 911 Emergency Dispatch Center. While police close in on his hideout, "Hollywood" commits suicide by shooting himself in the head. The number of robberies and the amounts stolen, almost $2.3 million, make Scurlock one of the most prolific bank robbers in the history of the United States.

Son of Preacher and Teacher

William Scott Scurlock was born and raised in Reston, Virginia. His father, William Scurlock, was a Baptist minister and his mother, Mary Jane, was an elementary school teacher. Scott had three sisters, two older and one younger. Although religious, his parents were extremely permissive and Scott grew up without guidelines, never developing a moral compass. He understood the difference between right and wrong, but didn’t care. Acquaintances described Scott’s personality as charming, charismatic, and extremely manipulative. Like Peter Pan, Scott never grew up or accepted adult responsibilities, but tenaciously clung to his adolescent interests and attitudes.

In 1977, while living in Hawaii, Scurlock was fired from a landscaping company for growing marijuana on the firm's land. He moved to Olympia and in 1978 enrolled at Evergreen State College, where he studied organic chemistry and biochemistry. And that’s where he learned how to make “crystal meth,” a refined, crystalline form of methamphetamine. Scurlock used Evergreen’s chemistry laboratory to manufacture the highly addictive, illegal drug, using ephedrine, an ingredient found in non-prescription cold and allergy medicine, and chemicals stolen from the school. He “attended classes” at the college sporadically for six years, while becoming a major source of supply of the drug in the Northwest.

Scurlock rented a nondescript, 1,700-square-foot farmhouse which sat on a 19.25-acre tract of land at 1506 Overhulse Road NW in Olympia, near Evergreen State College. There was a large barn on the property, which was the perfect place for hiding a clandestine laboratory. In the early 1980s, he started building a treehouse in a stand of seven cedar trees on the back portion of the acreage, using materials he stole from nearby lumberyards. It took Scurlock and his friends many months to construct the 1,500-square-foot, unstructured treehouse. It was three stories high and reached more than 60 feet above the ground, facing Mount Rainier. The house had 30 windows, electricity, plumbing, a full kitchen, a working bathroom and a fireplace. When the farm was put up for sale in 1990, Scurlock used $110,000 from his cache of drug profits to purchase the property and protect his unauthorized, rickety creation.

From Drugs to Banks

In 1990, Scurlock’s main meth distributor was murdered, making him realize just how violent and dangerous the drug business was. He stopped manufacturing crystal meth, but now needed another source of easy money to support his extravagant lifestyle. Because Scurlock liked to travel extensively, he never held a real job his entire life. The caches of drugs and money, sealed in plastic buckets and buried on his property, financed his activities for approximately one year. Now, running low on funds, Scurlock decided that robbing banks would be a good choice and a great adventure. He chose a target and then recruited a close friend from college, Mark John Biggins (b. 1954), to be his backup inside the bank. Biggins's girlfriend, Traci Marsh, was persuaded to drive the getaway car.

Scurlock and his friends pulled their first bank robbery shortly before noon on Thursday, June 25, 1992. It was the Seafirst Bank (now Bank of America) at 4112 E Madison Street in Seattle’s exclusive Madison Park neighborhood. Scurlock disguised himself with a false nose and heavy theater makeup and Biggins wore a plastic Ronald Reagan mask. The robbery was successful, no one got hurt, and the trio returned to Olympia with $19,971. Biggins decided he didn’t like robbing banks and moved to Darby, Montana, with his girlfriend, where he got a job building log cabins. Biggins's hiatus from robbing banks would last for four years.

Scurlock enjoyed the thrill he experienced from the heist and decided to make robbing banks his new profession. On Friday, August 14, 1992, he brazenly entered the same Seafirst Bank in Madison Park, alone and brandishing a handgun, and stole $8,124. Although Scurlock was heavily disguised, his demeanor and intimidating style were much the same as his first robbery. This violent method is known as a “takeover” or “take-charge” robbery and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Seattle Police Department initially nicknamed him the “Take Charge Robber.”

Over the next three months, Scurlock and his accomplices robbed four more banks in Seattle, then stopped. The last heist was on Thursday, November 19, 1992, at the Hawthorn Hills branch of the Seafirst Bank, 4020 NE 55th Street, which netted the gang $252,000. By now, the police and FBI were quite familiar with Scurlock’s theatrical disguises and style, gleaned from witnesses and bank surveillance cameras, and changed his sobriquet to “Hollywood.” The media preferred “Hollywood Bandit.”

Bandit Resumes Robbing Banks

Scurlock spent the $322,870 he had stolen in 1992 within a year and then decided to resume his favorite occupation, robbing banks. He had enlisted a childhood friend, Steven Paul Meyers (b. 1950) to help him launder the money through numerous trips to gambling casinos in Las Vegas, Nevada. Now he wanted Meyers to help him rob banks. He chose the same Seafirst Bank in Hawthorn Hills where he had made a quarter-of-a-million-dollar score the previous year. Scurlock and Meyers watched the bank for several days, then on Wednesday, November 24, 1993, the day before Thanksgiving, made their move. Scurlock went inside the bank while Meyers stayed outside in his vehicle with a portable two-way radio, monitoring police frequencies on a scanner. The robbery took place without a hitch, but this time they only got $98,571. Scurlock buried all the loot on his property, except for $5,000 which he magnanimously gave to Meyers for his participation. It was the amount Scurlock typically paid accomplices, since he was the mastermind and took the most risks, and since it kept them hungry for more.

Scurlock and Meyers robbed five banks in 1994, three in Seattle and two in Portland, stealing a total of $263,599. In January 1995 the bandits hit two banks. Scurlock stole $11,924 on January 18 from the Wallingford branch of the First Interstate Bank (now Wells Fargo Bank), 1701 N. 45th Street, but a dye pack exploded, coloring the money red, and he had to abandon the loot. Undeterred, on January 27 Scurlock returned to the Madison Park Branch of the Seafirst Bank for the third time. He carried away $252,466, enough to tide him over for the rest of the year.

Closing in on Scurlock

Meanwhile, the Puget Sound Violent Crimes Task Force, a group composed of FBI agents, Seattle Police detectives, King County Sheriff’s detectives, and other law enforcement agencies, made catching the bandit, now dubbed “Hollywood,” their top priority. Aside from the money, the police were worried it was only a matter of time before someone was killed. They carefully charted the details of the robberies and poured over scores of surveillance photographs, establishing his modus operandi. The pattern seemed to be connected to the amounts of money the bandit stole. They calculated that Hollywood was spending about $20,000 a month and determined approximately when he would need more cash. During this period, the task force would be waiting near Hollywood’s favorite banks, Seafirst and First Interstate, in neighborhoods where he had made big scores in the past. In addition, the Washington State Bankers Association, working in conjunction with Crime Stoppers of Puget Sound, offered a $50,000 reward for information leading to the bandit’s arrest and conviction.

For the next bank heist, Scurlock enlisted the help of both Steve Meyers, who would continue as the outside lookout, and Mark Biggins, who would assist inside the bank with crowd control. On January 25, 1996, the gang robbed the Wedgwood branch of First Interstate, 8517 35th Avenue NE and escaped with $141,405. Coveting a much larger stash of money, Scurlock hit the Madison Park branch of the First Interstate Bank, 4009 E Madison Street on May 22, 1996 for $114,978. But it wasn’t enough to satisfy his lust for money and adventure, so “Hollywood” decided to rob three banks in one day. Potentially, it would be his last big score and something the police and FBI would never expect. He targeted Seafirst Bank branches in Lake City, Green Lake, and the University district. But Scurlock changed his mind at the last minute, deciding to rob only the branch in Lake City.

Scurlock's Last Heist

At 5:41 p.m., Wednesday, November 27, 1996, Scurlock and Biggins entered the Seafirst Bank at 2800 NE 125 Street, while Meyers lingered nearby in a getaway vehicle. The minute they walked through the door, one of the tellers, having been briefed about the heavily disguised robber, hit the silent-alarm button. The robbers forced everyone to lie down on the floor, and while Biggens held them at gun point, Scurlock entered the vault with the head teller and stuffed bricks of money into a large nylon duffel bag. The bandits were out of the bank in four minutes and calmly walked down the street. A customer disobeyed orders, however, following them to a blue Dodge Caravan and then calling the 911 Emergency Dispatch Center with a description of the car and their direction of travel.

Although the task force had dozens of police officers on alert for a robbery, Lake City was a first, and all the cars were patrolling in the wrong neighborhoods. Due to a severe wind and rain storm and holiday traffic, the bank robbers were slow to leave the area. Even though they switched from the getaway car to a white Chevrolet Astrovan, it wasn’t long before three task-force members, acting primarily on instinct, began tailing the van, intending to make a traffic stop. While Scurlock calmly drove south, Meyers and Biggins began rummaging through the bundles of bills on the floor of the van, looking for electronic tracking devices.

Scurlock didn’t wait to be pulled over, however, and stopped the van on 24th Avenue NE in the Ravenna neighborhood. He jumped out with a 12-gauge shotgun and pointed it at the task force officers, but he was unable to fire the weapon. The officers fired several shots at the van, which immediately sped away. After a few more blocks, the van stopped and Meyers exited the side door with a shotgun and opened fire. The officers returned fire and once again the van sped away. Two blocks later, someone inside the van broke out the right rear window and began firing an assault rifle. Scurlock shut off the headlights, bailed out of the vehicle while it was slowly moving and fled on foot. The van continued through a front yard at NE 77th Street and 20th Avenue NE and struck a house.

Inside the van, the officers found Biggins and Meyers, who had both been seriously wounded; two 12-gauge shotguns; a U.S. military .308 caliber M-14 semiautomatic rifle; two 9mm semiautomatic pistols; three Motorola two-way radios; a police frequency scanner; and $1.08 million in cash. Seattle Fire Department’s Medic One paramedics transported both suspects to the emergency room at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle for treatment of non-life-threatening gunshot wounds. During questioning, Meyers told FBI Agent Shawn Johnson that Scott Scurlock was the mastermind behind the heist and that he lived in Olympia.

Searching for the Fugitive

Meanwhile, the Seattle Police Department established a six-block perimeter around the area where Hollywood escaped and was thought to be hiding. While police officers went door-to-door trying to determine if anyone was being held hostage or had seen anything unusual, Emergency Response Teams (ERT) and K-9 units began methodically searching for the fugitive, who was known to be armed with a 9-mm semiautomatic Glock pistol. Although it was pouring rain and extremely windy, the hunt for Hollywood continued throughout the night, but without success.

At 2:00 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day, November 28, 1996, Robert and Ronald Walker were visiting their 85-year-old mother, Wilma C. Walker, for dinner. Her house, located at 7518 20th Avenue NE, was approximately two blocks from where Meyers and Biggins had been captured. Ronald had a 10-foot camper stored on sawhorses in Wilma’s back yard, about 40 feet from the house. The two brothers heard about the hunt for the fugitive and the $50,000 reward and decided to scout around their mother’s property. Seattle Police officers had visited Wilma Walker and searched her back yard, but she was concerned and asked the boys to check the camper, which hadn’t been searched. The camper door was still secured on the outside with a cable and padlock, but there was a small covered hatch at the front of the camper through which a lean person could gain access.

The Walker brothers became suspicious when they noticed the camper door had been locked from the inside and the curtains drawn. Robert attempted push open the hatch door but it wouldn’t budge. Meanwhile, Ronald fetched a stepladder, peered through the small window in the cab-over sleeping compartment, and saw someone inside. The brothers quietly withdrew and while Robert watched the camper, Ronald called the 911 Emergency Dispatch Center. Within minutes, several Seattle police cars arrived and officers surrounded the camper.

Showdown

As patrol officers took up defensive positions, Sergeant Howard Monta tried to elicit a response from the person inside, but was unsuccessful. Finally, he pried a louvered window open and emptied two canisters of capsicum pepper spray into the interior, without result. When Sergeant Monta attempted to unlock the door, there was a single gunshot and he scrambled for cover. The patrol officers responded by firing over 30 rounds at the camper shell.

Dozens of Seattle police officers, FBI agents and detectives from the Puget Sound Violent Crime Task Force arrived at the scene, cordoned off a five-block area, and began evacuating nearby homes. The Seattle Police brought in an armored vehicle and positioned it near the camper in preparation for an assault. Hostage negotiators attempted repeatedly to contact the person inside, using a bullhorn, but were unsuccessful. At 6:00 p.m., ERT fired a tear-gas shell into camper, but still there was no response. They waited 20 minutes, and then fired another shell into the camper. At 7:40 p.m., ERT officers in gas masks carefully approached the camper, and Sergeant Paul McDonagh opened the door. They found a man lying dead on the floor in the dinette with a 9-mm Glock pistol and one empty shell casing next to his body.

Aftermath

Based on information from Steve Meyers, the FBI served a federal search warrant on Scurlock’s houses and property in Olympia on Thanksgiving Day. They discovered a cache of weapons, which included handguns, a silencer, several rifles, two sawed-off shotguns, and a large store of ammunition. The agents also seized over $20,000 in cash, passports, airline tickets, police frequency scanners, and portable two-way radios. Hidden under the floor in the barn, they found a secret room where Scurlock applied his makeup, stored his disguises, and counted the loot.

After the Seattle Police Homicide Unit completed their crime scene investigation, the body was transported to the Harborview Medical Center morgue for autopsy. On Friday, November 29, the King County Medical Examiner’s Office officially identified the man as William Scott Scurlock and Dr. Norman Thiersch, the pathologist, ruled his death a suicide. Hollywood died from a single, self-inflicted gunshot to the head. Although there were six other bullet wounds to Scurlock’s body, Dr. Thiersch concluded they were most likely inflicted postmortem and did not to contribute to his death.

On Monday morning, December 2, 1996, Steve Meyers, age 46, and Mark Biggins, age 42, were charged in absentia in Seattle District Court with suspicion of armed robbery and attempted murder of police officers, both state offenses. Judge Darcy C. Goodman set bail at $1 million each. That afternoon, the defendants were also charged in federal court with bank robbery and use of a firearm in commission of a crime. U.S. Magistrate John L. Weinberg scheduled a detention and preliminary hearing for Monday, December 10, 1996 and also set bail at $1 million each. In the preliminary hearing, Magistrate Weinberg ruled there was ample evidence to hold Meyers and Biggins for trial and ordered them held without bail.

Putting Their Lives at State

Meanwhile, when the Walker family attempted to collect the $50,000 reward offered by Seafirst and Wells Fargo Banks for the “arrest or conviction” of the bank robbers, they were met with resistance. The banks said that technically the Walkers didn’t qualify for the reward but offered them $10,000 in appreciation for their troubles. However, after a deluge of negative publicity from the media, coupled with thousands of telephone calls from angry citizens, the banks relented and agreed to pay the full $50,000.

In a brief ceremony on Wednesday, December 4, 1996, Seafirst Bank Chairman John Rindlaub presented the Walkers with a check for $50,000. And later in the day, Stanley Naughton, president and chief executive officer of Seattle-based Pemco Financial Center donated another $10,000, remarking he was disappointed that members of the financial community would attempt to renege on their offer of a reward when citizens put their lives at stake.

Meyers and Biggins Face the Law

On Thursday, February 27, 1997, Meyers and Biggens pleaded guilty in federal court before U.S. Magistrate Philip K. Sweigert to one count of conspiracy, one count of armed bank robbery, two counts of assault on a federal officer, and one count of use of a firearm in commission of a felony. On Thursday, May 15, 1997, U.S. District Court Judge William L. Dwyer (1929-2002) sentenced both defendants to 21 years and three months in prison, at the low end of the federal sentencing guidelines, plus an additional five years of supervised release. The sentences included an automatic 10 years for using assault weapons when firing upon federal officers. Because their crimes were so egregious and the defendants had confessed to prior bank robberies, Assistant U.S. Attorney William H. Redkey had asked for 24-year sentences. The state charges were dismissed without prejudice.

Steven Paul Meyers is currently (2009) an inmate at the Forest City Federal Correctional Institution, Forest City, Arkansas. His projected release is July 1, 2015. Mark John Biggins is currently an inmate at the Englewood Federal Correctional Institution, Littleton, Colorado. His projected release is June 3, 2015.

The number of robberies and the amounts stolen, almost $2.3 million, make William Scott Scurlock one of the most prolific bank robbers in the history of the United States.

Banks robbed by the “Hollywood Bandit”

*
June 25, 1992, Seafirst, 4112 E Madison Street -- $19,971
*
August 14, 1992, Seafirst, 4112 E Madison Street -- $8,124.50
*
September 3, 1992, U.S. Bank, 4200 SW Edmonds Street -- $9,613
*
September 11, 1992, University Savings and Loan, 4568 Sand Point Way NE -- $5,739
*
October 5, 1992, Great Western Bank, 2610 California Avenue SW -- $27,423
*
November 19, 1992, Seafirst, 4020 NE 55th Street -- $252,000
*
November 24, 1993, Seafirst, 4020 NE 55th Street -- $98,571
*
January 21, 1994, U.S. Bank, 8702 35th Avenue NE - $15,803
*
February 17, 1994, Seafirst, 4020 NE 55th Street -- $114,000
*
June 24, 1994, First Interstate, 3782 SE Hawthorn Boulevard, Portland, Oregon -- $00 (aborted)
*
July 13, 1994, First Interstate, 1630 Queen Anne Avenue N -- $111,796
*
December 20, 1994, U.S. Bank, 4727 SE Woodstock Boulevard, Portland, Oregon -- $22,000
*
January 18, 1995, First Interstate, 1701 N 45th Street -- $11,924 (dye pack exploded, money abandoned)
*
January 27, 1995, Seafirst, 4112 E Madison Street -- $252,466
*
January 25, 1996, First Interstate, 8517 35th Avenue NE -- $141,405
*
May 22, 1996, First Interstate, 4009 E Madison Street $114,978
*
November 27, 1996, Seafirst, 2800 NE 125th Street -- $1,080,000

Sources:

Ann Rule, The End of the Dream (New York, Pocket Books, 1999); “Pacific Northwest: Robbery Suspects are Shot After Lake City Bank Heist,” The Seattle Times, November 28, 1996, p. B-2; Arthur Santana, Lilly Eng, Jack Broom, Emelyn Cruz Lat, David Postman, Dave Birkland, “Suspect Dies in Holiday Gunfire,” Ibid., November 29, 1996, p. A-1; Jack Broom, Peyton Whitely, “Scurlock Talented, Well-Traveled,” Ibid., November 29, 1996, p. A-1; Arthur Santana, “Task Force Credited for Fewer Heists,” Ibid., November 30, 1996, p. A-5; O. Casey, Lily Eng, Peyton Whitely, “Scurlock: Known for Looks, Charm and His Big Tips,” Ibid., November 30, 1996, p. A-1; Peyton Whitely, “Robbery Suspect Ended His Own Life,” Ibid., November 30, 1996, p. A-1; “Dave Birkland, “Banks to Reward Brothers for role in Finding Robber,” Ibid., December 3, 1996, p. B-1; Lilly Eng, “FBI Finds Rifles, Cash, Radios in Home of Bank Robber,” Ibid., December 5, 1996, p. B-3; Dave Birkland, Dee Norton, “Another Holdup delays Cops’ Thank,” Ibid., December 6, 1996, p. B-1; Lilly Eng, “Suspects Weapon Jammed, FBI Says,” Ibid., December 10, 1996, p. B-3; “Cohorts of ‘Hollywood’ Enter Pleas of Guilty,” Ibid., February 28, 1997, p. B-2; Robert Saiz Holguin, Dee Norton, “Officers Sue Bank robbers,” Ibid., May 1, 1997, p. B-1; Charles E. Brown, “Hollywood Cohort Gets 21 Years,” Ibid., May 15, 1997, p. B-3; Ellis E. Conklin, Mike Barber, “$1 Million Robber took His Own Life”, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, November 30, 1996, p. A-1; Tom Paulson, Ellis E. Conklin, “After Shootout, Brothers Wonder if They’ll Get Reward,” Ibid., November 30, 1996, p. A-1; Ellis E. Conklin, “Banks Relent on North End Heist reward,” Ibid., December 3, 1996, p. A-1; Ellis E. Conklin, “Brothers Who Spotted Robber Will Get Their Full Reward,” Ibid., December 4, 1996, p. A-1; “Banks Redeemed on Robber Reward,” Ibid., December 4, 1996, p. A-16; “Weapons Found on Scurlock’s Property,” Ibid., December 5, 1996, p. B-10; “Pair Enters Guilty Plea in November Bank Holdup,” Ibid., February 28, 1997, p. C-2; M. L. Lyke, “Parents Selling Bank Robber’s Treehouse,” Ibid., November 20, 1997, p. A-1; Judi Hunt, “Tales of Robber Make House a Steal, Sellers Say,” Ibid., July 26, 1999, p. B-4; Bruce Rushton, “Not Your Everyday Bank Robber,” The Tacoma News Tribune, November 30, 1997, p. A-1. By Daryl C. McClary, August 29, 2009

William Scott Scurlock (1955-1996), the "Hollywood Bandit"

Courtesy The Seattle Times

Steven Paul Meyers (b. 1950), Hollywood Bandit's accomplice

Courtesy King County Sheriff’s Department

Mark John Biggins (b. 1954), Hollywood Bandit's accomplice

Courtesy King County Sheriff’s Department

Front page, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, November 29, 1996

Courtesy Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Front page, The Seattle Times, November 29, 1996

Courtesy The Seattle Times

Related Topics:

* Crime


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Okay the first Monday of 2010 is in the History Books. Moving on;) I'm already feeling better now that that's over with!

It's only the first Monday of 2010 and it feels like there were no Holidays:( Jan-April suck!!! Sorry-I'm feeling very crabby today!!!

Weather.com says that NYC is currently 19°F
but Feels Like 3°F. I'm not leaving my house until it warms up to at least 28°F- this is insane!

When Party Is Over, the Ball Lands Here By JAMES BARRON

December 31, 2009
When Party Is Over, the Ball Lands Here
By JAMES BARRON

Jeffrey A. Straus turned the key in the padlock and pushed the door open.

“This is it,” he said. “The vault.”

This is where the balls from New Year’s Eves past go after they have fallen for the last time: a subbasement room that is more Fibber McGee than Harry Winston — junky, jam-packed and dusty. Mr. Straus, the chief executive of the company that produces the New Year’s Eve celebration at 1 Times Square, had promised a look at the famed balls that were retired after their final countdowns.

In all the new years that have begun after a crowd chant of “10, 9, 8, 7,” Mr. Straus counts seven previous balls that were the focus of a much-watched descent. Two of them not only preceded Dick Clark, but they were also on the job before Guy Lombardo’s first downbeat at the Waldorf-Astoria.

But as Mr. Straus led the way into the vault, only one of the balls was present and accounted for. What happened to Nos. 1 and 2? “I don’t know where they are,” Mr. Straus said.

So what about Nos. 3, 4 and 5?

It turned out that those three were the same ball, the Methuselah of the New Year’s Eve celebrations. That one ball slid down the pole more than any of the others, from the mid-1950s until the mid-1990s.

But like some revelers in the crowd — and they know who they are — it had had a little work done over the years. So Mr. Straus counts it as No. 4 because it was turned into an apple in the 1980s, after the I♥NY campaign caught on.

He also counts it as No. 5 because, for 1996, it got new skin and rhinestones. (To make the math more confusing, from mid-’80s to the mid-’90s it reverted to its original, 1950s look — no more apple. Mr. Straus counts that as No. 3, “with an asterisk.”)

And No. 7? It is, as New Year’s balls go, a neophyte, having made only one trip down the pole, as 1999 yielded to 2000. It’s not in the vault, either. Mr. Straus said that it and No. 3-4-3*-5 had been shipped out to be ogled: No. 7 by tourists at the Times Square Visitors Center a few blocks away, the other by visitors to the Atlanta headquarters of Jamestown Properties, the real estate fund that owns 1 Times Square.

But No. 6 stood proudly in a cage in the corner of the vault, looking more like a satellite from the 1960s.

The vault is 50 feet beneath the slender, 24-story tower, which means it is 400 feet below where the ball will fall when Thursday ends and 2010 begins. It served as the electrical room after The New York Times sold 1 Times Square in the 1960s, Mr. Straus said. “The sides were filled with spare parts for the building engineers,” he said. “It was a natural place for the ball because of its electrical components.”

Still, there is more in the vault than just the Millennium Ball. On a shelf on one wall were silly looking hats from 1976 and T-shirts from 1997. “I never throw anything away,” Mr. Straus said.

And a few steps past the Millennium Ball were enough old numerals to welcome new years into the 26th century. The year 2543, anyone? That combination of numerals can be laid out from the ones on the floor. The “2” was made in 2001, when the clock was ticking toward a year with two 2s.

Last year, Mr. Straus stopped putting the ball away in January and installed one that is intended to stay outdoors, on its pole, all year long. It is covered with 2,688 Waterford Crystal triangles that are bolted to 672 light-emitting diode modules. Mr. Straus said it could generate 16 million colors.

That is 15,999,999 more than the first bulb, back in 1907. That one was made of iron and wood, was outfitted with 100 light bulbs and weighed 700 pounds.

The balls changed over the years, but the way they were lowered did not — until Mr. Straus came along. “Nineteen ninety-five, my first year, we converted from doing it by hand, six workers and a rope with a stop watch, to computer controls and an electronic winch,” he said.

But all the planning and technology did not avoid what was, undoubtedly, the first mistake of 1996.

“We turned it off halfway down,” he recalled. “I learned my lesson.”

He was not the only one. “My parents were at a party — ‘My son does the ball drop,’ ” he said, repeating his parents’ boast. “Now they don’t talk about it until after it happens.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/31/nyregion/31vault.html

Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company

Just made myself an OJ Cocktail of 50% less calories OJ, 1000 mg Emergen-C (tangerine flavor) & an Orange Airborne!! I refuse 2 get sick!!!

Intermission at the St. James Theatre recalling the Patti Lupone Diva moment when she l stopped the show -literally - during Gypsy:(

New Years Eve Day (12.31.09)

Helping my nephew TJ tune his guitar over the phone with my tuner:)

January 1, 2010