Celebrities can be so sparkly. As a kid, I was sure fame and money meant happiness. Ha! It means hard work for years. I’ve clawed my way to the middle. Haha.

IRL, many stars have that electric charisma and look fabulous in person. After meeting a ton of A-listers, I am happy to report that only tiny number of celebs seem – shall we say – less than humble. Once in a while, a top star can be surprisingly cranky! In their defense though, fame requires working one’s tuchas off.

This photo (below) was taken at the Tribeca Film Festival red carpet for The Quiet One, a fascinating film about ex Rolling Stone Bill Wyman. It was only a half-block from my home. One rarely sees famous far-right Republicans in my all-the-way left Manhattan neighborhood. At first, Rupert seemed awkward. Most likely because he knew that he wasn’t going to make a lot of friends in Chelsea. But he loosened up and seemed to enjoy the attention. 

Blondie in the East Village

My photo has been chosen for the soon-to-be-released paperback edition of Debbie Harry’s book, ‘Face It: A Memoir.’

I met charismatic and gorgeous Debbie Harry (Blondie) at Alan Cumming’s Club Cumming. Blondie’s appearance at the Enclave Reading Series was kept on the down low. As a member of the press, I’d been tipped off ahead of time and was quickly ushered to my seat. I sat between Thomas Manzi (Harry’s manager) and the entertaining theater director and actor, Rob Roth.

The punk icon successfully slipped into the dark club without notice and was led to her seat at our table. It was great fun when the eyes in the surprised audience popped when Blondie’s presence was announced. This was Harry’s first public reading from her debut memoir, Face It (HarperCollins). Oh, what a night!

I❤️NY

More A-List Celebs

It’s a lot of fun interviewing top celebs. Here are some of the stars I’ve interviewed and photographed here in my native New York City. My YouTube Channel stats are up to 1,746,884 views.

Check out more on my YouTube Channel

Update: As you know #Covid19 put the 3D entertainment industry on hold. We all want this nightmare to end. Wear your mask, get vaccinated, stay away from lunatics with AR-15s, and please come back soon! Love and kindness. In the meantime, here’s a virtual video with another New York City icon, Joan Jett.

A–G

Alec Baldwin, Moran Atias, Woody Allen, Angela Bassett, Kim Basinger, Jamie Bell, Mayim Bialik, Roseanne Barr, Prince Lorenzo Borghese, Kate Bosworth, Lorraine Bracco, Abigail Breslin, Jeff Bridges, Adam Brody, Albert Brooks, Zlatko Buric, Gerard Butler, Rose Byrne, Lizzy Caplan, Patricia Clarkson, Glenn Close, Laverne Cox, Billy Crudup, Penélope Cruz, Rory Culkin, Willem Dafoe, Paul Dalio, Rosario Dawson, Robert De Niro, Kirsten Dunst, Aaron Eckhart, Peter Facinelli, Michael Fassbender, Abel Ferrara, Ralph Fiennes, Isla Fisher, Jodie Foster, Ciaran Foy, James Franco, Antoine Fuqua, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Julia Garner, Paul Giamatti, Alex Gibney, Terry Gilliam, Domhnall Gleeson, Shep Gordon, Ryan Gosling, Maggie Grace, Maggie Gyllenhaal

H–N

Paul Haggis, Jerry Hall, Pooch Hall, Tom Hardy, Debbie Harry, Lucas Hedges, Katherine Heigl, Jonah Hill, Emile Hirsch, Katie Holmes, Gavin Hood, Vanessa Hudgens, Holly Hunter, Oscar Isaac, Allison Janney, Richard Jenkins, Joan Jett, Felicity Jones, Jason Katims, Zoe Kazan, Catherine Keener, Jack Kesy, Sir Ben Kingsley, Luke Kirby, Kevin Kline, Steven Knight, Shia LaBeouf, Christine Lahti, Peter Landesman, Frank Langella, Jill Larson, Juliette Lewis, Liana Liberato, Ray Liotta, Justin Long, Kevin Macdonald, Eddie Marsan, Dylan McDermott, Mads Mikkelsen, Cesar Millan, Helen Mirren, Julianne Moore, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Erroll Morris, David Morse, Viggo Mortensen, Cillian Murphy, Rupert Murdoch, Kumail Nanjiani

O–Z

Edward James Olmos, Elizabeth Olsen, Ellen Page, Josh Pais, Vanessa Paradis, Nate Parker, Aaron Paul, Bernadette Peters, Oliver Platt, Carrie Preston, Richard Pryor, Jr., Kathleen Quinlan, Daniel Radcliffe, James Ransone, Jeremy Renner, Jason Ritter, Eric Roberts, Ray Romano, Paul Rudd, Winona Ryder, Susan Sarandon, Peter Sarsgaard, John Sayles, Liev Schreiber, Adam Scott, Kristin Scott Thomas, Michael Shannon, Alia Shawkat, Alexander Skarsgard, Stellan Skarsgard, Christian Slater, Mira Sorvino, Paul Sorvino, Steven Spielberg, Gloria Steinem, Kristen Stewart, Sir Patrick Stewart, Jerry Stiller, Julie Taymor, Juno Temple, Fred Thompson, Uma Thurman, Lily Tomlin, John Turturro, Sofia Vergara, Alicia Vikander, Sam Waterston, Naomi Watts, Forest Whitaker, Michael K. Williams, Patrick Wilson, Nicolas Winding Refn, Alex Winter, Nat Wolff, Elijah Wood, Evan Rachel Wood, Matilda Mae Wyman, Suzanne Accosta Wyman, Bob Zappa

The post A-List Celebs Dazzling Photos appeared first on Award-Winning Writer and Graphic Designer.

SEE ALSO: Hats Off to Holly Hunter as She Continues to Blow Us Away with Her Career Choices

The movie begins with Pakistan-born Kumail struggling as a stand-up comedian who is playfully heckled by audience member Emily. The two hook up after the show and end up in bed. Kumail and Emily experience strong feelings for each other but Kumail’s Muslim parents have even stronger feelings about who he should—and shouldn’t—marry. Every time he goes for a meal at his parents’ home, they try to fix him up with Muslim women. Watch for scene stealer Kuhoo Verma who plays Zubeida, one of the eligible Pakistani bachelorettes Kumail’s mom invited to dinner. 

The post ‘The Big Sick’ NOT Just Another Ho Hum RomCom appeared first on Award-Winning Writer and Graphic Designer.

ASJA PANEL • Saturday, May 2, 2015 • 2:00–3:30PM

Editors love to get exclusive interviews with top people in the field their publication covers. Writers who can deliver interesting Q&As or profiles continue to get assignments. The challenge is that the bigger the name, the harder it is to get to the celebrity/leader. The panel will explain how to get assignments to cover the famous, convince their gatekeepers to give you access, get fascinating answers, and write a sizzling profile.

SCOTT S. SMITH, ASJA
Scott S. Smith has had been published 1,300 times in 175 media, including interviews with high-achievers such as Bill Gates, Stan Lee, Meg Whitman, Quincy Jones, Kathy Ireland, Lee Iacocca, and Dean Koontz. His Extraordinary People: Real Life Lessons on What It Takes to Achieve Success was published in 2014.

DORRI OLDS, ASJA
Dorri Olds writes movie reviews and interviews celebrities for many outlets, including The Forward and TheBlot Magazine. Her Q&As have been with such notables as Steven Spielberg, Susan Sarandon, Julianne Moore, Angela Bassett, Daniel Radcliffe, Ryan Gosling, Patrick Stewart, James Franco, Evan Rachel Wood, and Kirsten Dunst. She has also been published in The New York Times.

BEVERLY GRAY, BOARD MEMBER, ASJA

Beverly Gray writes the popular showbiz blog “Beverly in Movieland” and has written extensively on theater for The Los Angeles Times and on movies for The Hollywood Reporter. Among her many interviewees have been Gwyneth Paltrow, George Cukor, Charlton Heston, and Beau Bridges. Her books include Roger Corman: Blood-Sucking Vampires, Flesh-Eating Cockroaches, and Driller Killers and Ron Howard: From Mayberry to the Moon…and Beyond.

The post ASJA Writers Conference: Secrets of Interviewing Famous People appeared first on Award-Winning Writer and Graphic Designer.

My chest constricts at the state of the world. It’s so full of evil I can’t even watch the news most days. Yesterday’s upset came when I saw the cruelty in the comments made by Zellweger bashers.

I Googled “the cause of cruelty.” A Psychology Today article popped up that explained “the spirit of abstraction.” It’s a mental trick that allows some people to see others as objects. Slave owners thought of their slaves as possessions. Hitler manipulated the Germans until killing Jews seemed fine. And the Internet runs amok with a viciousness that still shocks me.

Hello! Renee Zellweger is human. Humans have feelings. Mocking her publicly is bullying. Yes, I’m sure she’ll be fine — she has a lot of money and can go to therapy or use a plethora of human vices to cope. But many A-listers I interview say they don’t read the comments about themselves because it would be debilitating.

At the base of the cruelty lurks jealousy and self-hatred. “Stars have all that money, they are so lucky. I have a shit job.” The average citizen is far from beautiful and will never have fans. Oh, boo hoo. Grow up, will ya?

There’s plenty of proof that nobody’s life is easy. You know why? Because nobody is immune to reality, not even stars.

Why do people even care whether Zellweger had surgery or not? A lot of the tweets about her were laughable. Posts compared her looks to 10-year-old photos. Yo! I bet your face and your skin looks a lot different than it did 10 years ago. And, there were multiple posts mocking her wrinkle-free forehead. I have news for you, I’m older than Ms. Zellweger, and I don’t have forehead wrinkles yet. Not every face ages the same.

Now let’s get back to not caring whether she did or didn’t have plastic surgery. I’m not good at math, but I can see a problem here. Look at the salary differences between genders. If you were in Hollywood, you’d probably be having plastic surgery, too, with so much at stake.

According to Forbes, the highest paid actors in 2014 were:

1. Robert Downey Jr. $75 million
2. Dwayne Johnson $52 million
3. Bradley Cooper $42 million
4. Leonardo DiCaprio $39 million
5. Chris Hemsworth $37 million
6. Liam Neeson $36 million
7. Ben Affleck $35 million
8. Christian Bale $35 million
9. Will Smith $32 million
10. Mark Wahlberg $32 million

And here’s Forbes’ list of the highest paid actresses in 2014:

1. Angelina Jolie $30 million
2. Sarah Jessica Parker $30 million
3. Jennifer Aniston $28 million
4. Reese Witherspoon $28 million
5. Julia Roberts $20 million
6. Kristen Stewart $20 million
7. Katherine Heigl $19 million
8. Cameron Diaz $18 million
9. Sandra Bullock $15 million
10. Meryl Streep $10 million

Wait, there’s more. Here are some stats about gender inequality in Hollywood from Indiewire:

Women directed 4.7% of studio films from 2009–2013

Women represent a total of 30% of characters, 29% of speaking parts 15% of protagonists/leads.

Women are younger than men onscreen. The majority of women on screen are in their 20s and 30s, while men are in their 30s and 40s.
Males over 40 make up 55% of all male characters, while females over 40 make up 30% of all characters.

Look at these dismal facts from USA Today Network:

As female movie stars get older, their compensation dips rapidly on average, unlike their male counterparts, a study says.
Female movie stars make the most money per film when they are 34 years old, but their earnings quickly decline after that age.

Male movie stars peak in their earnings per film at age 51, and their compensation steadily increases over time.

 “We are such an appearance-based society,” Timothy Judge, a management professor at the University of Notre Dame and leader of the aforementioned study, told USA Today.

Researchers suggest roles for older female actors are limited, creating more pressure on female stars to maintain a youthful appearance.

“Men’s well-worn faces are thought to convey maturity, character and experience,” the study went on to say. ” A woman’s face, on the other hand, is valued for appearing young.”

BOTTOM LINE

It would help if they didn’t pair actors with actresses who are at least 20 years younger. For women to have a long-term career, plastic surgery should not be pooh-poohed. For goodness sake, don’t people have better things to worry about?

Here’s a great video that says it all:

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