OK, so we made it
to our stop in Spokane at around 7:30 on that night from Vancouver, BC.
We stayed at the KOA campground
on the outskirts
of town. We got settled in for the night for a good night sleep.
We were expecting Sussie/Mac to show up around
noon the next day
and reserved a spot next to ours so we could have lunch together.
Next morning, we
went into town and mulled around in the Spokane Valley Mall, while there
looking forward to the stores to open,
we spotted an 'Islander'
newspaper that had an interview of Tony in it about 'Made-Up' - (Lynn Chapman,
bravo - you did an amazing
job with publicity),
we got three of the newspapers just as soon as we spotted it. I called
Lynn around this time to let her know we
were in town and
she was happy to hear we were here. After some light shopping, we
headed back to the campsite. There we met
Sussie, who shared
our parking spot for a bit cheaper rate and pitched a tent. We had
great conversations over lunch and around 5:00
I got gussied up
and so did my mom for the show, Sussie bravely followed us in her pickup
as we headed out.
As I got ready, I
stuck my finger through my nylons in a bit of a nervous state and had to
dash off to TJ Maxx for a replacement pair.
Then, I was on my
way.
We arrived at the
event, (I could barely walk in the shoes I had, much to Sussie's amusement
- I hate heels!) and we found the theater
upstairs.
Sussie got our tickets and we waited for the group of the hour to arrive.
We sat outside and kept watch. Me and my mom
recognized Lynn's
hubby, Tom and said hi - he remembered us and came over to shake our hands.
Sure, enough - I heard one of the
AMC workers announce
"They're here!" over a CB radio and soon, in filed Lynne, Brooke and Tony.
Lynn Chapman followed them,
both Lynne and Brooke
went for something at the concession stand as a crowd immediately gathered
around Tony. The man is like
a magnet.
I gathered up my things and went over as well.
After a few minutes,
and setting down my stuff nearby, I walked up and shook Tony's hand.
I told him my name and that I had met him
at Paley, before
I knew it - I kissed him on the cheek, it was such a natural thing - he
seemed so familiar to me, that I didn't plan it - it
just happened.
He didn't mind, as I turned to see my mom wanting to take our picture.
Tony put his arm around me, and I put my arm
around his waist
and we smiled. I thanked him and went over to Brooke and Lynne who'd
walked up to the crowd now merging with
them as well.
I introduced myself to them, and Lynne remembered me as the 'Kim' with
the web site, I thanked them for everything
and hoped the site
helped. I wish I could have talked to both ladies more, but we had
to move into the theater and so we gathered
further down the
hall.
The crowd didn't
immediately go inside, so we went off for a second round of meet and greet,
I followed behind Sussie, who I persuaded
to go over and talk
to Tony. She talked to him a bit with me beside her and she told
him about my web site. As soon as she did, he lit up
and said something
like "Oh, that's terrific, thanks so much for that!" and shook my hand
again. I was like - this was great:) Free publicity,
thanks Sussie!
I went over to chat
lightly to Lynn and gave her a hug, telling her how proud I was of her
work, I was. And, asked how she was holding up.
Then, we filed inside
for our seats.
The movie started
up and we sat through I would say roughly two hours and it was terrific!!
If you've not seen this movie yet, go see it -
it's a darling movie.
The audience was laughing so hard, I think though for some they either
knew of the cast personally or had possibly
seen some of it
before...they caught a lot of inside jokes. But, the jokes were clever
and I really loved the performances. Great movie, it
deserves distribution,
folks!! What are the execs waiting for - a formal invitation?
Alright, after the
lights came up, Lynne, Brooke and Tony filed back in to stand off to the
side of the lower auditorium to answer questions,
as they did, the
sound cues of the movie blared up again and the previews started playing.
Everyone looked up at the sound booth as if to
say "What the heck
are you doing up there? Sleeping?" Soon they turned it off,
and Tony joked "That's never happened to us before!"
Questions were very
interesting in regards to the movie, like "How much was improvised?"
"What was the production costs?" "How long
did it take to film?"
Someone sweetly asked Brooke "Was it hard to play someone who wasn't a
pretty lady like yourself?" But, the one
comment that everyone
just loved and had Tony nearly in tears from laughing so hard was a guy
off to the side (I think I saw him later at
the workshop):
"Have you ever considered renaming the movie 'My Big Fat Lebanese Makeover
Movie'?" That was great!
Afterwards, we all
filed back outside and some people stood around to chat a little bit with
the stars, I asked Lynn where the reception was
and slipped out
back with Sussie to drop off a bag I had been carrying with extra stuff
in it - I didn't want to haul it around at the reception
(the stuff I had
to bring was a pillow - as I traveled all that way with a back that still
was bothering me from an earlier injury - thank God for
codeine! and other
asundry stuff). We came back and found the reception downstairs.
It was just a simple little bar area off to the side of
the movie theaters.
They had the cast there and only a few other people. Serving white
& red wine, capers, cheese and crackers, and beer.
It was a nice little
catered affair.
Both Sussie and my
mom convinced me to get up and casually go over to mingle with the cast.
Lynne and Brooke were preoccupied
elsewhere, so I
stood a bit in behind Tony as he was chatting and me and my mom with Sussie
made light talk. Soon, we saw Tony
move away from a
guy he was talking to to grab a piece of cheese near us. I looked
up at him and smiled as if to coax him to come
over and join us,
and he did! He was really pretty cool, talking to us for at least
ten minutes - I told him right off the bat "You must be
so tired!" as I
knew the kind of hectic schedule he seemed to deal with. He said
"No, actually, it's rather exhilarating - the Q&As and
the whole thing
- I really love it!" He then stared answering my mom's questions
about the distribution of the movie and it was very
interesting.
She asked him that he should consider taking it to The Women's Network
as it's primarily a woman's film. He said he did
and they turned
it down. I told him that it didn't make much sense with the fact
that all these teen movies were out there yet the baby
boomer generation
was the one growing and he told me "Exactly, that's why were trying to
get to that market!" but that he wasn't getting
far with it with
film execs. Sussie told him about her investing money in "Empire
of the Sun" and it's lack of success with returns, Tony
was surprised at
that. He also said that movies like 'Terms of Endearment' he wasn't
fond of and that movies like 'Made-Up' he wished
would receive better
treatment. Sussie started praising 'Monk' and you could see Tony
light right up and I congratulated and wished him
luck on the Emmy
nomination to which he said "Thanks! I'll be glad when it's all over!"
I think he's just on a whirlwind right now. Sussie
told him about her
husband a bit, but I won't go into the whole thing here as she'd explain
it better - but Tony was quite fascinated by her
story. After
that, he was taking away by someone from AMC for something.
You'd think that
would be a night for me, but I pulled out my blank invitation to possibly
go over for Brooke to sign. Well, Sussie saw it
and said "Why don't
you get Tony to sign it too! Come on!" I told him I already
had a signature (during this whole conversation, I had my
back to Tony who
was standing right behind me - possibly overhearing us), she kept saying
"Schmooze, schmooze!" I was like "Alright,
I'll schmooze!"
as I turned around, Tony was right there, with this funny look on his face
and his hand ready for me. It was the funniest thing,
it's like "Oh God!
He heard us!" I took his hand - again - and said "I'm sorry, I can't
take her anywhere!" and asked if he'd sign my card.
He went over to
the table that Brooke sat at next to us and signed the card - With much
thanks...Tony Shalhoub. I thanked him, he still had
this rather bizarre
look on his face - please forgive me Tony, don't think I'm weird - I'm
really not! And, then I walked over to lean over to Brooke.
She was sweet, smiling
at me and I told her how much I enjoyed the movie and asked for her autograph,
I also told her that I was glad she
liked my web site
(a separate story) and she said "Oh, you're Kim!" Hee hee...I get around.
I told her "Yes!" and she signed To Kim, above
Tony's 'with much
thanks' and signed her name underneath his.
After that, feeling I probably didn't want to look anymore bizarre, I said "OK, we're going now!" to Sussie and my mom and left.
The next morning,
we got up, fixed a light breakfast and dressed much more casually - we
went off for the Spokane Civic Theater.
We got lost a few
times - an adventure in itself - just ask Sussie! Once there, we
realized again we were early and that they were still
holding rehearsals
in the auditorium.
Later they asked
us to go ahead and go in. Soon, we saw Brooke and Tony peek around
the curtains and knew they were about ready
to start.
They came in with a nice intro and a cast of the theater group there did
a little scene from a play for Tony, Lynne and Brooke. Tony
came down in the
audience to sit down just a seat over from my mom to watch, Brooke and
Lynne sat in front of her. That was rather neat
in itself.
The scene was short by the young stage crew, and then Brooke, Lynne and
Tony returned to the stage. Tony gave an excellent
critique that was
spot on right off the bat to what they did and could improve on, and what
he liked. Then, the young cast went back to their seats.
They opened the floor
to questions. Most about the film and it's more artistic merits,
and someone did ask Tony about how much
Adrian Monk effected
Tony in real life. I don't know how it got around to that, but when
he said "It doesn't effect me!" and looked at Brooke
she said nothing
and smirked at him! That was too funny! Tony got up to reenact
some of Monk's gestures, which was neat and several
more questions were
asked about the movie. I sensed that they were more relaxed on stage
from the previous evening and it was nice to see.
One thing that was
particularly funny was Brooke's cell phone kept ringing during the workshop
while she was on stage - first Light Eternity
called her, then
the composer from the movie. I think it might have been slightly
staged, but it was very funny. She said "I'm on stage right now!"
After that, Tony
had to hop a plane for Seattle, so he didn't stay too long. I managed
to call out his name and hand him a card quickly that me,
my mom and Sussie
signed personally to thank them and they were off.
We returned home
after that, stopping at Roslyn for pictures and are happy to be back in
familiar settings - so are our kitties. Who were very
well taken care
of by our cat sitter, Jen.
I finished the roll
of film that we took with us and several pictures of the event. I
will try to get them on CD and post them to my web site soon
or on here...so
keep in touch.
All in all - an incredible
experience I'll never forget - thank you so much Lynn for the chance to
be a part of it and my deepest gratitude to
the ever gracious
Tony, Brooke and Lynne!!
I'll be doing everything
I can to help with getting the word out about distribution - you can count
on that. Whew!! I'm home! But, it was a lot
of FUN!!!
Kim
Robarts