The Stupidity inside "Hollywood"

Y’know. How do I say this nicely? There are to many people l in this Entertainment business that don’t need to be!

Last week I'm on the phone with the management company for Halle Berry, Vincent Cirrincione Associates. I have no idea how I ended up on the phone with them. I’m not interested in Halle being a part of this particular project. She does not speak Lingala, KiSwahili, Tshiluba or French. I don't think she'd be interested in a film like this. It wold help raise awareness of the issues illustrated within the movie, but I don't think she cares or even knows about those issues. I could be wong, but Halle and I have never sat down and spoke over fufu. I think her agencythey submitted (sent) an actors package to me. Anyways, this woman named Shana answers the phone. We have a pleasant conversation, and I tell her that she’s in an important position because she’s in the phone all day playing gatekeeper.

During the conversation (remember that I don’t know this woman) I mention that that we’re looking for French speaking French speakers for this project in the near future. She says that she has some friends that can speak the language. I ask her where are they from? She says Rwanda.

I think to myself, "Oh really?"

I ask her if they speak KinyaRwandan which is one of Rwanda’s national languages. She’s not sure so she calls them, then emails me that they do speak the that language (she spells it Kenya/Rwandan). She asks me to email her the script and that she is going to have her “friend” call me. I said that if everything worked out I will give Shana a credit for helping to cast Rwandans. Common protocol is that she would look at the script and tell me if she feels her “friend” can do the part.

So I send her the script. A week passes by without my getting a phone call from Shana’s “friend”. So yesterday I called Shana and tell her that I didn’t hear from this person that she was supposed to have call me.

The following is the conversation that then took place between Shana and I.

Said: I didn’t hear from your friend.

Shana: What? She’s supposed to call you.

Said: Yeah, but I haven’t heard from her.

Shana: She should have called you, I sent her the screenplay.

Said: You sent her what script?

Shana: The script you sent to me.

Said: You shouldn’t have sent it to her.

Shana: She needed to know what the project is about.

Said: No she didn’t, not at this stage. We first need to know if she can speak the language. You should not have done that.

Shana: Its no big deal, I didn’t send it to everybody.

Said: It is. The script said “confidential. It says on the cover that the script can’t be passed out without my permission.

Shana: Trust me its not a big deal.

(“It’s no big deal” to her probably because she’s never written a script that was worth making confidential.)

Said: Where does your freind live?

Shana: In Houston.

Said: Houston? What does she do in Houston?

Shana: She’s an electrical engineer. She has a cousin that lives here in LA and is an actress.

Said: (really calm) She’s an electrical engineer living in Huston? How is she going to be in a film that is being shot in LA when she works in Houston fulltime? You send it someone in Houston that’s not an actress, but you don’t send it to the actress that lives her in Los Angeles.

Shana: Well I’m really busy right now

(she says that because she’s’ not woman enough to say that she screwed up.)

Shana: Its no big deal.

Said: I’m going to hear form my producers.

Shana: Just don’t tell them.

(Obviously Ms. Shana doesn’t respect people that invest in projects. Do you think that she’ll tell her boss Mister Vincent that she just screwed up? No she won’t. But I will when he and I meet. Hollywood isn’t that big. You can bump into anyone anywhere at anytime)

Shana: Okay, I’m going to call her.

Said: Please do.

I hang up the phone and call Kristi to tell her what happened. Kristi is shocked.

You see, I don’t want that screenplay floating around the Rwandan internet community because I don’t know who will be appreciative of the story or who will hate the story because it shows a Rwandan Tutsi soldier playing a killer. . People or communities can act funny., They can even kill you if they don’t agree with your point of view. I’ve seen it happened.

So then I call Joyce in Atlanta to tell her what happened. As my executive producer, she calls Shana to find out what happened. Joyce calls me back and this is what she said Miss Shana told her about her conversation wiht me:

Shana: Said shouted at me (I didn’t)

Shana: I don’t like the way he talked to me.

Joyce asked for the information on the person that she had sent the screenplay:

Shana: We can’t give you that information. We don’t give out client information. We know that Rwandan community and was going to help Said find Rwandans.

(Now her friends a client? Uhm, I wasn’t asking for help in “finding Rwandans”. Shana volunteered that she knew some and wanted to recruit them. Shana did this of her own volition. Please, if I wanted to find a Rwandans, I’d go look in Atlanta)

Shana: We’re not going to work with Said.

(Work with me? I don’t need them to work with me. I don’t know them. Oh please.)

Shana: I don’t even want to talk to Said. If he calls I’m going to call the police.

(This Shana woman is obviously not part of this realty. She screwed up. I have a legal right to sue her and her agency for violating the written agreement on the script that says if you send the script out with out my approval, you will be sued.)

So Joyce explains to her that she needs to delete the email and that if anything happens with the script that heads will roll.

Guess what Shana says?

Shana: We’ll I’m busy right now. (Heard this before? Coward)

Joyce says a few more things and finishes the call. How Joyce handled that call, THAT’S how business needs to be done!

Now you see why I do not like Hollywood, to many people have egos that are bigger than their job description. Believe me should myself and Vincent or Halle ever meet that I’m going to tell them how Shana acted, which was very unprofessional. The person on the phone is a representative of the company no matter what field.

The stupidity within Hollywood. It can drive to drink.

And I don’t drink.