the way they pronounce

Phuaahh! Faahhh! Aaaahhhh! Loulaah lah lat tiki loulah babala! I’m speaking in tongues over the shear fabulousness of this afternoon, evening. Oh my God today was great! My 2.5 second meeting with Douglas Coupland last month was extended to an hour long, me and him laughing and giggling like old friends in the parking lot conversation. All of which… okay I’m getting ahead of myself.I arrived out at the location and dropped my manager off. I went back to the staging area to get Noodles all comfy in the trailer. I noticed an Audi TT parked near the trailers and thought it unusual. It’s kind of a high-end car and you don’t see many of them around our locations. It’s also my favorite car. Okay, yes I know it’s a big old gay car, but I love me some Audi TT. Heather came over and said that Michael and his friend were on the set and that it was “Michael’s friend’s car.” Who was Michael’s friend? Douglas, of course. I got to the location and found him hanging out at the monitor. Michael introduced me again and then Douglas commented on my new gray Diesel coat. “What do you think about this coat?” “I think it’s fabulous. I’m going to steal it off you. Don’t leave it anywhere by itself.” I said, “Coming from you I consider that a high compliment, Michael. You’re like my fashion guru.” It’s true, every time I see him he’s dressed in some freaked out Japanese or Belgian high fashion explosion that is so avant garde he looks like a colorful homeless person with expensive shoes. I love the way he dresses!Douglas asked me about writing screenplays, I asked him about writing novels. We talked shop. He’s funny and warm, just like his books. His Canadian accent did throw me. He’s got a serious accent, eh? But I like that. Consider Tennessee Williams and his southern accent. It’s Canadian gothic.But then the high point came when he turned to me and said, ” I know you guys will probably be wanting to get back to Los Angeles once the shooting is over, but if you’re in town a couple of days after filming stops I’d love to have you two over to the house for dinner.” I was ready to faint. Dinner at Douglas Coupland’s house. Was I not in these here pages expousing my desire for a dinner invite? Yes I was. Okay since OD has turned out to be the book of wishes I’m going in for the kill. I’m going to get his email address. Can you imagine? Me surreptitiously emailing Douglas Coupland from my desk at Loser Industries? A small dose of desktop fabulousness.

Three days later…

Well it’s been busy. My manager left, then my agent was here. He’s on his way to the airport right now. Two nights ago I had my interview with a reporter from “Entertainment Weekly.” I just hope I didn’t sound like an idiot. I was so amazed that they were interviewing me at all. He asked me some pretty good questions which I wasn’t expecting since that magazine is so wretched. I think it went okay. He’ll probably only use like one or two quotes, if that and focus instead on the celebrity interview part. He was a nice guy though and had been to a Christian high school himself when he was growing up. He said that he came out to interview us because of Mandy Moore and that he wanted to interview me because “The script was actually good.” We’re on day three of shooting the prom scene. It’s the climactic scene of the movie where everything is revealed and villains are punished. I didn’t go to my prom, but now I feel like I invented one, a far cooler prom, for myself. I feel bad for our extras. We’re shooting nights, so for the past three days these kids have been stranded in a kind of eternal prom, forever in formal wear… all night long. We start shooting at 6 PM and finish up each morning around 7 AM. Nerves are getting frayed. S came at us with all these script notes. I know it’s common for scripts to be rewritten during shooting, but we’ve made more than half the film at this point and this is the first time we’ve even considered rewriting on set. His notes were sort of… I don’t know… gilding the lily. B and I gave it a shot, but he was asking for a little too much and for stuff we don’t really need. It didn’t work. And to make matters worse, the actors figured out that we were making changes so then they all started coming forward with their ideas. It’s really scary when actors do their own writing. B was in the position of saying no to them and we had two meltdowns. We wound up cutting one of the scenes that S wanted rewritten altogether. Which is fine, we didn’t need that scene in the first place. But S is mad, and the acting monkeys are mad. B handled it just fine, “I’ve been working on this script for four years. Don’t tell me I don’t know the characters. Back to work, monkeys!” My agent told me yesterday that my former writing instructor from AFI’s agent was arrested recently and spent the weekend in jail! She apparently was ripping off one of her clients. So crazy. B and I met with her when we were in school, but she seemed sketchy then. I wonder what my instructor is doing for an agent now. Yikes!Top five:

1. My agent is so religious, he’s too scared of God to rip anyone off.
2. Back to work, monkeys!
3. Despite the fact that it is mysteriously difficult to find thermal underwear in Canada (!?) I managed to score a pair for tonight’s night shoot.
4. Queen Elizabeth coverage, non stop.
5. Diner date with my idol!