Dee J. Adams's Blog, page 16

You Heard It Here! Icons

Yep, it’s the beginning of the month. Even more importantly, it’s the beginning of my release month! Dangerously Close will be out on July 23, so you can head to my website or FaceBook page to check out the daily countdown. And because it’s so purty… I’m posting the cover.

As promised, I have another Hollywood story for you. Since Dangerously Close is about a rock star, I thought I’d share one of my singing experiences. Along with working as a dialogue coach behind the scenes, I also worked as a stand-in many times. (I think it’s fairly self-explanatory… I stood in for the actor who wasn’t available to rehearse, which often meant I stood in with the A-team or real actors.) I had the fortunate experience to work on the second annual (1995) VH-1 Honors. There was one specific medley with Smokey Robinson, Whitney Houston, Wynonna, Boys II Men and Bette Midler. I stood in for Bette Midler who couldn’t make the rehearsal. (Yes, I was slightly freaking out. LOL. Incidentally, I should note she ended up dropping out of the number and Wynonna took her place. I sang You’ve Really Got A Hold On Me in rehearsal. Vince Gill replaced Wynonna in her original song.) As the song progressed, each artist made their entrance onto the set from a different area. I was the last person to enter and as I came on stage with the microphone to my mouth ready to belt out the song, Whitney Houston was standing on her mark and said, “You go, girl!”

Oh. My. God. Whitney told me, “You Go, Girl!”

I had a total freak out moment before diving into the song. I knew it was a moment that would be with me forever. I still remember her smile as she rooted me on. Trust me, I’m not a great singer and every artist on that floor new it. But I committed and belted out the song the best I could. To be standing in a line with all those artists at the end of the song as we all sang together is one of the highlights of my life. (I still can’t believe Whitney’s gone. It doesn’t compute in my brain.)

What about you? Did you ever get a supportive word from someone you admired and it totally made an impact on you?

Have a great day and remember… You heard it here!

Dee J.

Happy Balance

I’ve got a question for you. What is the meaning of life? I sure as hell have no clue, but I have decided a few things about my own life. I’ve decided that I want to be well-rounded. I want to be able to sleep in on weekend mornings or mornings after a rough few days in a row. I want to enjoy the parts of life that make me happy. Whether that’s read a good book, watch a television show, or movie. I want to be able to do other things in my life besides write books, blog about books, tweet about books and FaceBook about books. I’ve decided that if I don’t get something done one day, I can do it the next. Will I make my deadline for a book or blog, yes, absolutely. I am a perfectionist and I strive to be on time for deadlines, but in between those deadlines I like singing to my own tune.

I’ve discovered that putting pressure on myself to do ONE THING and ONE THING ONLY only makes me NOT want to do that one thing. I need variety. I get inspiration doing other things.

My hat is off to the writers that can pump out three, four or five books a year. That is a dedication beyond measure. And don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean to imply that these people don’t have lives. I’m sure they’re very happy pumping out all those books. I’ve just discovered it’s okay for me to go at my own pace. As Jon Bon Jovi sang it: It’s My Life.

What about you? Do you put pressure on yourself to do things and find you get burnt out more quickly or do you thrive on the pressure to do it all?

Have a great day and remember… You heard it here.

Dee J.

Rights and Wrongs

YOU HEARD IT HERE!

I took my 21 year old nephew out for dinner for his birthday and we ordered his first (legal) beer. I’ve been debating whether it makes me a cool aunt or a woman contributing to the delinquency of a recent minor. Granted, I didn’t know until the end of the meal that he’s not a beer fan (so I had to sip some of his…you know…I don’t like to waste good alcohol. ). He barely had any. It made me feel good and bad at the same time. Good in that I shouldn’t worry that taking him out for alcohol is going to make him a lush and bad that I forced my beer loving ways on the poor boy/man.

I’ve always been of the mind that if the youngsters of my family are going to drink, I’d rather be around for it then have them do it behind my back.

So tell me… have any of you contributed to the delinquency of a minor? Feel free to change the names to protect the innocent!

Remember, you heard it here.

Dee J.

Dangerous Race and Danger Zone available now at Carina Press.

Dangerous Race and Danger Zone available now at Amazon.

You Heard It Here!

Yes, that’s right, I’ve finally come out of the closet. Not THAT closet! I’m talking about the BLOG closet. The plan is to post every 10 days starting the first of the month. Look at that… so far, right on schedule.

What will I/we be talking about, you ask?

Lots of things. Probably a lot of show business and even more about life. (Maybe a little about my books or writing as it pertains to life.)

The main regular feature I hope to be consistent with is Hollywood Story of the Month. At the beginning of each month, I’m going to name drop (unless I’m not comfortable dropping the name in which case I’ll just refer to the actor as “the actor”) and tell you one of the many stories I have from my (over) twenty years working in show business.

Seeing as how it’s the first of the month, I guess I better get cracking with my first story.

Hm… Where to start? I’ve already shared a ton of stories on different blogs so I’m sure some of these may be familiar. (Of course, I think they’re mostly Clooney stories and I can talk about him all day. LOL.)

You may have noticed that I already made a caveat about name-dropping and it’s because of this first story.

I was fresh out of school (The American Academy of Dramatic Arts) and had my first show biz job working as a page for KTTV. (Also known as Metro Media back then.) The job description varied depending on what show I worked on. For instance, when I worked on a talk show called Hour Magazine (hosted by the lovely Gary Collins) – wearing my gray and navy polyester suit – I escorted the talent to their dressing rooms as they arrived and picked up the dirty towels they left behind after they’d removed their makeup after the show. Other jobs included escorting the audience to their seating and working as a general eye during the show to make sure everything went smoothly as far as the audience was concerned. (Think security without the badge or gun.)  And on some shows I worked as a stage PA, answering the stage phone and taking messages for the cast and crew. (That job also required picking up dirty towels at the end of the (shooting) day.)

On this one particular show, (which I really can’t name because then you’d be able to figure out who I’m talking about so…  um… sorry. ) the actor playing the father had a very wicked sense of humor. Because I couldn’t leave until I’d collected all the towels and dropped them to be laundered, I used to loiter in the hallway and listen for the showers in the dressing rooms. Once the showers were done, I knew I only had a few minutes to wait to pick up those towels and head home. (Keep in mind that shoot days are long usually a minimum of 11 hours, so waiting around even longer for towels was not as enjoyable as it might sound. Also keep in mind that some actors liked to entertain in their dressing room at the end of the day if they had people visiting and I really didn’t want to wait around for that!)

Anyway, so I had heard the shower and knew this one actor would be done with his towels soon. (He was a guy, he was fast.) I gave him a few minutes and knocked on his door.

“Hi, it’s me, just checking if you’re done with your towels?”

“I’m done,” came his reply.

“Great, can I come in? Are you decent?” I ask.

“I’m decent,” he says.

I open the door and there he is standing in absolutely nothing with his arms spread wide. I back up and slam the door as he laughs at me. (Luckily, I was looking at his face so aside from realizing that he was completely naked, I didn’t see anything. Yay.)

“That is not decent!” I yell through the door.

He is still laughing. “You didn’t ask if I had clothes on.”

I can laugh about it now, but I was pretty angry back then. I think I even left his towel in the room so he had to use the same dirty one the next day of shooting. It was all a big joke to him, but I learned to ask the right question after that.

“DO YOU HAVE CLOTHES ON?”

The thing I learned very early on about most actors—mainly men—is that they don’t have a problem letting it all hang out. They’re used to stripping around wardrobe people so I think many don’t think twice about it. But I was very young and very green and this guy knew it.

Lesson learned on my part. It was the very beginning of a very fun road in Hollywood.

What about you? Any lessons learned from something embarrassing?