Mr. Clooney goes to Sony...wonder if he'll take the tour, too

Magnet #496 - Sony Pictures

Soooo, Clooney and Heslov packed up their Smokehouse production bags and moved cross town over to Sony Pictures in Culver City. You may have heard.

Or, if you're like me, you've heard the same news no less than 50 times in the last week. Not that I have a Google alert on George Clooney or anything. Heheh.

Rumors abound about the move - whether or not it was money, or a better production deal, or whatever. Honestly, I don't care. That's his business.

While I'm sad he's leaving Warners, I'm superexcited that they're going to Sony Pictures, the former MGM Studios lot, where great films such as Wizard of Oz and Gone With the Wind were produced.

It's also home of the second best studio tour ever. (Here's the best studio tour, ironically, Mr. Clooney, it was Warners.) So fun, that I've now done it twice! Take this tour. I can't say it enough. (Plus! They have a little shop!)

The first time I did Sony, I'll never forget - it was the Monday after Spider-Man came out...when they busted the box office wide open at $115 million. In their little lobby atrium, they had a coffee and pastries breakfast set out, courtesy of Spider-Man. They also had a giant (giant!) inflated Spider-Man lined along the wall. And, as you rounded the backlot to their other entrance, there was a giant banner across the entrance that screamed $115 million. It was fantastic to be a tiny, tiny, tiny part of such a successful studio weekend. I can only imagine how much fun it is every week there's a successful opening. (Mind you, it probably sucks after a sucky opening, I'm sure.)

Though here's a better description of the tour, my own tour was just the bee's knees - getting to visit different soundstages of movie history, walk down little backlots (in a stupid and rash decision, they destroyed a ton of the more historic lots), visiting the Jeopardy! set, going into the scoring and recording facilities, but also seeing the supercool Art Deco Irving G. Thalberg administration building with all the Oscar statuettes in their lobby, and hearing names like Thalberg and Mayer and Selznick and Gable and Garland and Rooney.

And bonus! We got to visit the deserted commissary. If you click on that last link, they explain a little about why the commissary was so important...but the deal is that Clark Gable used to have this giant leather chair in the comm and it was only for him, no one else sat there. But, when the love of his life Carole Lombard was killed tragically in a plane crash coming home from a USO tour, Gable was devastated, and they kept the chair empty, waiting for him to come back. And when he finally did come back to the lot and into the commissary, everyone in the room gave him a standing ovation. (Though, honestly, that's kind of weird, I bet it made him a little sadder. But whatever. Bygones.)

That first trip was also special, because it was just me on my own wasting time before my meeting with a bigwig producer (totally a different magnet), hanging out around the Sony studio, taking the tour, having lunch with the locals, and also visiting the nearby historic old Culver City Studios, run by historic old David (the O stands for nothing) Selznick, producer extraordinaire. If you haven't heard of Selznick, definitely check out his book of...memos.

The man wrote a trillion memos to everyone. About everything. And pages worth at a time. It's such an insightful way to see his casting and production decisions for movies such as Gone With the Wind, Rebecca, Prisoner of Zenda, and Anna Karenina, and to see what kind of man he was in general, in his dealings with his stable of stars like Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh. Fascinating.

The second tour, I went with some folks, and we also had a blast. The little intro video, getting to go into some of the same buildings, etc. We even got to stand outside one of the soundstages, listening to Coldplay rehearse for some tour they were about to launch.

The best part about that trip, was that it was near my birthday, and we'd gotten tickets to watch some ill-fated pilot that Dean Cain was shooting. Even though they said it received the highest audience favorability scores (ever), it just was not the best pilot ever (sorry, Dean). But as they were clearing out the audience, I watched as my friend fought with security guards just to go talk to Dean. And I was like, dang, I didn't know she liked him all that much. In the end, she was jostling people out of the way just to get Dean to sign my birthday card. So funny. I still have that card, too. LOVE.

(Oh, as an aside, since this is aiming to be a long-ass post, sorry - here's what's not funny. I get the need to make a buck, but damn, Microsoft, I would love to see the research results that validated your decision to produce that stupid vomit ad for IE8, not to mention the whole ill-conceived and -executed campaign. Aiming at Millennials? The vomit I get, the stupid text lexicon I get. But, why in the hell are performing cruel and unusual punishment in the form of fugly pants for my Dean Cain? And, how many Millennials actually watched Lois & Clark. Hi, one generation up, my friends.)

Anyway, so, back to my fun Sony post...

Yay, George Clooney and Grant Heslov are now at the historic Sony Pictures lot! May you guys have a great run together, and plenty of atrium breakfasts along the way!

Sound of summer

Magnet #495 - Santa Barbara

My friend went out to Santa Barbara a couple of weeks ago. For the life of me, I dunno how I've been there, and not come back with a magnet for myself.

Of course, I have to admit, I don't think I've actually been to Santa Barbara proper...my guess is that seeing it from the PCH doesn't count. Hmmm. Next time.

I'm picking this superduper cute (lookit the sand!) magnet for today, because with the late start to summer, it's only been in the last week or two that I've been seeing the flip-flops and the multicolored toenails on the subways and sidewalks.

I do love that you can tell when summer's here...usually when it's a quiet day in the office, and all of a sudden you hear the soft flippity-flop of flip-flops shuffling by.

Well, I dunno what Keira has to do with it, but ewww*

Magnet #494 - James Bond's Aston Martin DB5

Another one of my Union Square magnets - this one I had in mind for if I ever finally watched the latest Bond flick, or for one of my favorite shows Top Gear.

Yeah, let's go with Top Gear, only the best show ever. If you haven't seen it - go find BBC-A, and track it down. Better still, find it on YouTube.

The beauty of this show is that everyone can watch it. Now, hang on, bear with me. Really! Everyone really can.

I'm totally not a gearhead, but find myself fascinated with the car footage. It's amazing. When you watch, you can see why guys love cars, the sleek lines, the sheen, the revving of the engines. They're just gorgeous machines.

But there's also the coolness of the guests - seriously, where else would you find Helen Mirren saying that she sets her alarm early so she and her hub can have some alone time. The first I ever saw of the show were the three hysterically funny Doctor Who interviews (Christopher Eccleston, Billie Piper and of course, David Tennant), and I was instantly drawn to the lap time competition.

I love watching folks race around the course, cursing all the way through it, and then finding out where they landed on the board. (I have to admit, it makes me all giggly, too, when they slap the magnetic strip across the board. Hah. I also admit that I'd totally be all over racing that damn course, too.)

You also have to love all three presenters - Jeremy Clarkson, James May and (no, he doesn't really look like David Tennant), Richard Hammond. Whether or not they're RL chums, they certain get on well on camera, and they make you want to hang out with them.

Or rather, they make you want to compete with them, in one of their wacky races. Remember the Wacky Races cartoons? Just like that. Whether it's across the deserts of Africa, the traffic of London, the country of Vietnam or the superscary backwoods of the US, you just want to go along for the ride.

And, luckily, we get to.

* Random almost-related-to-my-magnet quote from Jeremy:

I’m sorry, but having an Aston Martin DB9 on the drive and not driving it is a bit like having Keira Knightley in your bed and sleeping on the couch.

- Jeremy Clarkson

Lost and found

Magnet #493 - Hannya

Boo!

So, this guy - or actually, gal - came from a friend and colleague of mine during his trip to Japan. It's a Japanese nō theatre mask, with two horns, very mean eyes and a giant scary mouth from ear to ear.

Freaky deaky, I know. Supposedly it represents a jealous female demon - she was soooo jealous that she grew those horns. Huh. Ok.

The sad part is that I can't even tell you what the rest of the writing is on the magnet, despite taking Japanese at school. I only took it under extreme motherly duress - she was convinced that I should learn Japanese, so that I could do business in Japan. In the end, I took those three ill-fated semesters of Japanese in college.

Which meant, every Friday, I had a katakana/kanji quiz. Ugh. Oh, I loved writing the characters. Loved. They were so pretty and fun drawing them! It was when I had to actually associate them with words and speaking that I had troubles. Good gravy, those were some of the hardest semesters at Chapel Hill. I hated it.

And guess what, Mom wasn't wrong - my first advertising client was NEC, whose headquarters were in Japan. Oddly, my clients were actually based on Long Island, so I rarely had to interact with their headquarters. But, having not retained one word of it, it was about two years or so on the account that I even confessed that I'd had Japanese in school.

There's a part of me that's a tiny bit envious for those whom Japanese came seemingly easy - for example, the friend/colleague of mine who went to Japan? He took Japanese in school, and ran the complete gauntlet, totally immersing himself in the language and the culture, even went to live there for several years. It's weird how some things stay with people, and some things just fall away...

Here's another weird thing...that same friend/colleague? I lost touch with him after freshman year, as you do. But one day a couple of years ago, I was sitting at my cube minding my own business, and my chairman rounds the corner and introduces us, saying that we had to get to know each other since we were both big Tar Heel fans. And it was a good two minutes before I placed him to JAPN101 at Chapel Hill.

See, that kind of thing happens when you go to smaller schools. But when it's a school of 22,000 kids in NC, you don't often expect former classmates to randomly pop up in your cube in NY.

Talk about freaky-deaky.

Welcome to Puerto Rico!

Magnet #492 - Puerto Rico

Here's something weird - whenever I think of Puerto Rico I think of that one travel commercial with Ricky Martin where he says, "WELcome to PUERto RIco!"

But now, I'm wondering if it's one of those false memories, particularly as I can't find the vid on YouTube. Hmmm. No one else remembers that commercial? Of Ricky in white linen, looking all hot and poetic justicy?

I think I'm just having one of those days, because I also can't for the life of me figure out who gave me this magnet. So if it's you, thanks very much!

I picked it because - and this won't surprise you in the least - I watched Disney's Princess Protection Program last night. The one with total (or Disney hype'd) BFFs Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato - filmed entirely on location in Puerto Rico. About the princess of Costa Luna (Demi) who had to be relo'd to the backwoods of Louisana with a covert agent and his daughter (Selena), and the trials and tribulations of a modern-day princess trying to blend in as a typical American teenager. Adorable concept.

What? I love DCOMs (Disney Channel Original Movies). They're great fun, you don't have to think about anything, they don't solve the world's problems, and every once in a while they make you sing.

But, there's a caveat to my DCOM love. It's basically anything pre-High School Musical. For some reason (other than singing a couple of their songs), I'm not on the HSM bandwagon. In fact, I didn't even really like Camp Rock all that much (which didn't stop me from buying the Camp Rock Band-Aids, but that's a whole other magnet, methinks.).

Yep, my favorites of the bunch are several years ago now, but movies like the Zenon series - the ones with pre-soap diva Kristen Storms, where she's a preteen in outer space, living in a spay-stay. Or, the one with pre-grown up Ryan Merriman, Luck of the Irish, about a basketball player who finds out he's half-Leprechaun. I know! It's crazy!

Up until last night, I would have said it was a function of me growing older (finally) and not liking the newer movies, but Princess Protection Program was kinda cute. Silly, but cute. And, they didn't solve anyone's problems, you didn't have to think too hard, and if I watched it more than once, I'd probably start singing the soundtrack. Of course, it didn't hurt that cutie Tom Verica was in it, playing the covert agent dad.

The one thing that I was absolutely in awe of the big Disney machine over, was the part where the whole thing centered around the concept of princesses...and how it's not about what you are, but who you are and what you can offer to the world. It dawned on me that they were totally adding another level of substance to their own Disney Princesses empire.

Whoa. C'mon, that's sheer genius.

Paging George Kaplan

Magnet #491 - North by Northwest

I bought this one from that magnet vendor down at Union Square. How cool is this magnet!

I mean, it's the epitome of cool with awesome Cary Grant on it. I'm actually watching North by Northwest right now, as I type. TCM's running a daylong Hitchcock marathon. Yay for TCM marathons!

This one's never been one of my favorite Hitchcock movies. I always lean toward the obvious Vertigo and Rear Window. But, as I'm rewatching it, I'm finding myself looking at it with new eyes.

I just did a tour of The Plaza, and that's where Roger Thornhill was abducted. I just went to the Frank Lloyd Wright exhibition at the Guggenheim, and though the house at the end wasn't a FLW house, it was certainly done in his style. And on and on...in the end, I do find myself liking this movie even more.

Funnily enough, I've had the magnet a few months now, and only when I started to take a picture of it today did I notice there was a fifth head up on Mount Rushmore! Hahahahaa. That Hitch, he's a nut.

Beary glad the week's over

Magnet #490 - Yosemite

A friend of mine gave me this wood cut magnet. LOVE!

I've not been to Yosemite, but one of my sister's best friends is a park ranger there. Or maybe it's Yellowstone?

Eh, either way, the magnet's supercute, and after a week of ups and downs, highs and lows, nooks and crannies, I'm glad to be sitting here at home on a Friday night finally in relative quiet.

Sad? Maybe.

Peaceful? For sure.

Though, honestly, I might would rather be out in Yosemite right now, with these guys.

Of course, it'd be hard to drag my laptop, wireless, TV, DVR, cell and blackberry along with me. Hahahaah.