Hello 2009!

The Are U a Star team wishes all our friends, family and fans a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year.

Even though we are closed for the holidays, we've been watching some auditions from our Arizona Casting Director on Maneater. Faith Hibbs-Clark from Good Faith Casting (clever name) has been busy at work putting people on tape. She's finding some good people down there to fill some of the many roles we are casting locally in the Phoenix area.

I look forward to a great and busy 2009 for Are U a Star and Billik/Wood Casting.

Actor of the Year: I have to go with Sean Penn for his terrific performance in "Milk". I really thought that he completely inhabited the character. Let's see how he does on Oscar night!

Actress of the Year: Cate Blanchett. Always radiant.

Casting until the last possible minute.....

As the agencies were closing all around us today, we were busy trying to get actors approved at the network and get offers out before the holidays. By about 1pm today, most of the agencies had closed their doors for 2008 and the only way to get a hold of them would be via cel phones. We are still open and seeing actors for "Maneater" early next week, but then we too will be shutting down for the holidays and re-opening on January 5th.

We've got the shooting schedule for "Maneater" and it looks like the actors will be heading to Arizona for rehearsal during the week of January 26th with a start date of February 2nd in the Phoenix area. I'm not sure how they are going to get Phoenix to look like Beverly Hills, but I am happy that I am not in charge of locations or set dressing!

On the Kent State front, we've got strong interest from Richard Dreyfuss in playing one of the main roles, so along with Brittany Snow, that film is shaping up to have an excellent cast!

I've been reading lots of actors this past week or so, and have met some fun and talented new people. "Pre-reads" as they are called are always fun, as we get to meet actors that we haven't seen before and hopefully discover a fresh face. I tend to find that the ratio of "callbacks" from pre-reads is small - probably one in every 15 or 20 actors may get a callback, but oftentimes the actor may not be right for the role he or she is reading for, but I will remember them for future projects. So, it's a worthwhile use of time.

Here's best holiday wishes to all from the AreUaStar.com team. Hope all your auditions go well and your dreams come true in 2009. Don't forget to check in with the AreUaStar.com site frequently, as we'll be adding new videos in the beginning of the year.

Actor of the week: Constance Zimmer. You may recognize her from her great turn on "Entourage" where she has a re-curring role as the newly appointed studio head who owes Ari a favor. One of my offices favorite actresses, we love her raspy voice and we love her energy.

Holiday Season at AreUaStar.com

Well, the holidays are upon us.... I find it very amusing that in Hollywood, Christmas vacation fever starts at the beginning of December. It's almost as though the whole town starts shutting down and people are unable to focus on getting things done. We, however, have a lot to accomplish before we shut down for the holiday. We've started have casting sessions for "Maneater" and are making offers on some of the roles. I'll have more to report once we've set some people.

Sarah Chalke has been in some of the auditions to read with the actors and she is fantastic! Not only is she a wonderful, real and funny actress - but she's a lovely person as well. I am enjoying working with the creative team which includes Director Timothy Busfield (who most people know as an actor from "Thirtysomething" and "West Wing"); writer Suzanne Martin (who was on "Frasier" for many years); Gigi Levangie Grazer (who wrote "The Starter Wife" book) and executive producer Stephanie Davis.

Looking forward to seeing the "Star-ving" webseries on Crackle.com. It begins in January. And the AreUaStar site is getting into the holiday spirit with a special on Gold Star packages. If you've been wondering if you have what it takes to make it in Hollywood, now is the time to find out! Gift certificates are available, too....

Check back next time and hopefully we'll be able to announce some of the star names who we've cast in "Maneater".

Sundance, here we come....

It's been an exciting and busy time since I last reported. We are full steam ahead on "Maneater" - the 4 hour miniseries for Lifetime. Sony is the producing studio, Sarah Chalke ("Scrubs") is set as the lead role Clarissa and Tim Busfield is directing. This will shoot in Arizona starting in early February. We are making offers on a number of the roles and casting many others. A number of the smaller roles will be cast in the Phoenix area.

We got great news that the short film that I cast and Executive Produced, "Boutonniere" will be premiering at the Sundance Film Festival. This is a great little film that I've talked about before starring Wendi McClendon-Covey ("Reno 911"), newcomer Sarah Swain and Zach Quinto ("Heroes"). I've never gone to Sundance before, so I'm looking forward to it.

Additionally, we heard that the film we cast earlier in the year, "Pedro" is an official selection at the Berlin Film Festival. I won't be going to that festival, but a number of the cast members are attending.

In the meantime, AreUaStar.com continues to generate lots of hits and many people are giving the gift of an AreUaStar evaluation for a holiday present. It's a very unique gift for that special person in your family or friend who dreams of stardom. Gift certificates are available now!

"Maneater" - our latest project!

Good news! We've just started a 4 hour miniseries for Lifetime Networks called "Maneater" based on the book of the same name by Gigi Levangie Grazer (The Starter Wife). The script is written by Suzanne Martin, and I'll be able to share with you the name of the actress playing the lead shortly.

This is a funny and entertaining script, kind of a "Sex in the City" vibe, set in Beverly Hills. We'll be working on the 12 lead roles, including great roles for the lead's parents (Mother: 50's, very attractive Latina and Father: 60's, playboy type of guy, whose style is stuck in the 70's). Looking forward to finding some great people and assembling a wonderful cast. I'll write more about it in the upcoming blogs. This will shoot in February, most likely in the San Diego area.

Star-ving and other things upcoming

Well, the "Star-ving" shoot has been going incredibly well! The cast has been great, and everyone is having a good time. I can't wait to see the finished product. We had to do some last minute shifting when the shooting schedule changed to accommodate Gilbert Gottfried's schedule yesterday - and overnight we had to cast 2 roles. Luckily, we had some great people in our back pockets and it all went well.

Last week some of the wonderful improv players included Sean Cullen (Last Comic Standing), Natasha Leggero and Ahmet Best (Jar Jar Jinks from the Star Wars films). This week Jeremy Miller and Alan Thicke reunite (along with Tracey Gold) from Growing Pains for a funny episode.

Stay tuned.... we have some good casting news coming soon. We are in negotiations for a big project. More to tell you soon.

Actor of the week: Natasha Leggero - funny standup, improv actress. Has recently appeared on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Keep an eye out for her, she's very appealing and inventive.

Casting awards and other fun things....

Well, this has been a fun week (and it's only Tuesday!). On Sunday, the "Married...with Children" cast reassembled for David Faustino's webseries. It was so great to see everyone in one place, and it felt just like we were "home" again. Great to catch up with Ed O'Neill and Katey Sagal, and to visit with Christina Applegate.

When it came time to shoot and Ed's first line as Al Bundy was "God, I hate my life"... it was as if they had never stopped playing their roles. They all picked right back up where they left off over 10 years ago. Ed O'Neill has that Al Bundy delivery that we all know, and it was really funny to hear it come out of his mouth. I think everyone had a really great time, and it was wonderful to see Steve Ritt, the dog trainer - who brought a dog that looked just like "Buck" the dog. He told us that he had to use spray-on hair color to get the dog to look like the old Buck.

Last night were the Artios awards, where the Casting Society gives out awards to it's own. I was nominated, along with my casting partner Jason Wood, for our work on "Samantha Who". We didn't win, but congratulations to Meg Liberman and Cami Patton who won for "Pushing Daisies". Congratulations also go out to Jason Wood for winning his first Artios for "Park" in the independent low budget feature category.

Other friends of AreUaStar.com who won include David Rubin and Richard Hicks for "Re-Count". It was great fun to see all of the agents, managers and of course, all of my Casting Director colleagues. The CSA put together a great event and a wonderful dais that inclued Neil Patrick Harris as the master of ceremonies, Audra McDonald, Elisabeth Shue, Jimmy Smits, Sandra Oh, Joshua Jackson and Selena Gomez.

We're CAST!

When I signed on for the David Faustino web-series "Star-ving", I thought it would be a quick little fun project.  62 roles later, I think we've just about finished the casting for the 13 episode project.  I was right about the fun part, but not so accurate about the quick or  little description.

Lots of great people are doing the series including:  Ed O'Neill, Katey Sagal, Christina Applegate, Ed Asner, Alan Thicke, Seth Green and Coolio.   

They'll be shooting starting on Sunday for about 2 1/2 weeks.  It will be fun for me during the "Married...with Children" episode.  Since I cast the first 8 seasons of the show, I'm really looking forward to hanging with the cast - it's been a long time since we've all been in the same room together!

I'll let you know how it goes next week.

Little People actresses?

Unfortunately, the woman who played David Faustino's mother in the pilot of "Star-ving" has moved to Florida and is not available for the series. Patty Maloney, a very funny lady, did a great job, but we have to replace her. Finding a Little Person actress in that age category (50-60) is not easy!

Additionally, we have some pretty racy stuff for this character to do - so that knocks out some people. So, I am looking for a funny, very small woman who can play David's mother. Let me know if you have any ideas.....

Actor of the week: Toby Jones. Starring in "W" as Karl Rove, you may recognize his as the voice of Dobby the House Elf from the Harry Potter movies - he also played Truman Capote in the 2006 film "Infamous". He's got a funny face and great acting chops.

It's been a while...

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. We've been busy casting the webseries "Star-ving" and it's been a lot of fun. We've got 43 roles to cast and so far, I think we've chosen about 30 actors. We are just waiting on a shooting schedule to hire them.

The best part has been having David Faustino in the room when we were casting. He improv'd with the actors - which for some of them worked well, and for others, it threw them off a bit. This series is largely improv, so it was great to find the actors who could just go with the flow and also who could create something other than just the words on the page.

I generally think improvisational skills are extraordinarily difficult unless you have a natural talent. The ability to instantaneously come up with material (funny material) isn't something that you can really be taught - although you can certainly improve your existing natural ability. We have great improv groups in Los Angeles - the Groundlings - which has spawned a large number of Saturday Night Live alumni (including Larraine Newman, Kristen Wiig, Will Ferrell, Ana Gastayer, Maya Rudolph and many others) and the Upright Citizens Brigade - the New York group which brought us Amy Poehler. These are both great places for us Casting Directors to find fresh and funny talent. I try and see performances of these groups a few times a year to make sure I know all of the talented people that are performing with these groups.

Trying something new...

For this fun webseries that we are casting, "Star-ving", I am trying something new. In addition to using Breakdown Services, I've posted some of the available roles on AreUaStar.com. This will allow people to submit their photos for potential auditions through the site. I hadn't originally thought that the site would offer actual auditions, rather I had planned on using the site as a tool for people to really discover if they have star potential, but then thought this might reach a different audience, and that I could discover some interesting new talent.

So, I've listed 4 or 5 available roles on the site under "Your Chance to Audition for a David Faustino Webseries". Be sure to check it out and see if there is a role that you are right for.

In other casting news, we are still waiting on our friend Chris Duddy's film "American Ghosting" to get up and running. This funny, dark horror comedy has laughs and screams, blood and ghosts and should be a lot of fun to work on. Chris is hoping that we'll start before the end of the year, so stay tuned on that. Chris and his wife Joely Fisher just adopted a baby girl. She joins their 4 other kids! Mazel Tov, Chris!

What the heck is "soft-scripted"??

I had a meeting yesterday with the executive producers of "Star-ving", the new webseries that we are doing. They kept referring to the series as "soft-scripted" which is a term I had not heard of before. It seems to be a cross between a scripted and improved series, which means that they have created an outline of sorts - it describes scenes and has some dialogue pre-written, but then it's up to the actors to improvise the rest of the dialogue. I guess you have to have a great director and editor to assemble the whole thing.

This should be lots of fun. There are over 40 roles in the 13 episodes and we have to have them all cast by the end of October, so the next few weeks should be keeping us busy.

On the Kent State front, we had our director, Karen Slade, in from New York last week and we had some really great meetings with talent. One of my favorite actresses, Brittany Snow has agreed to be attached. She loves the era and the role - of a Kent state student who becomes an anti-war activist. Brittany is an incredible talent, having starred in the wonderful NBC series "American Dreams", the film "Hairspray" and most recently in the horror film "Prom Night". We'll be making an offer on the lead male role very soon. Stay tuned for progress reports.

On the non-casting front - I was in D.C. this past weekend and got to see two incredible exhibits at the Smithsonian. In the Museum of Natural History, the recently opened Sant Oceanic Hall has some amazing things about sea life and it's evolution, and there was a biosphere of live butterflies that was like walking around in "Willa Wonka and the Chocolate Factory". Truly amazing. I flew on the wonderful Virgin America and watched 3 movies.... the Martin Scorsese documentary about the Rolling Stones; "Smart People" with Dennis Quaid and Sarah Jessica Parker and another one that I can't remember. Think I will travel with them again.

We're doing a Web Series....

My old friend David Faustino called last week to see if we would do the casting on a new project he is producing. It's a web series based on a fictionalized version of himself. You remember David as "Bud Bundy" from "Married... with Children". I watched the pilot, which he already made, and it is hilarious. There is a special appearance by Ed O'Neill (Al Bundy) and the series is going to be lots of fun. There are some pretty outrageous characters. We'll be doing it on a shoestring budget, but I think we will enjoy the process. Also playing a prominent role is Corin Nemec - who you might remember from "Parker Lewis can't Lose". He is one of David's best friends in real life, and plays himself in the series.

We may open up the audition process on the AreUaStar website to allow actors to submit themselves for available roles. Stay tuned for more on that idea.

I'll have some updates as to the positives and the challenges of casting a web series once we begin.

Had a hard time getting into the series premiere of "Heroes" - once my very favorite show. Hopefully I can get swept back up into it. Any reaction out there on new series premieres?

Wanted to let you know that the membership of the Casting Union (Teamsters Local 399) overwhelmingly voted to ratify the contract for a 3 year term. Phew, guess this means we can all keep working.... oh, wait a minute.. there's still a pseudo SAG strike clogging everything up. Well, hopefully that will be over soon and we can all get back to full steam. Kudos to the rest of the Union Steering Committee for all their hard work on making gains and helping Casting Directors to get pension and health benefits.

Actor of the week: Sara Swain. Sara stars in a short movie that I cast called "Boutonniere". I saw a screening of it last week and all the cast was great. Congrats to writer/director Coley Sohn! Speaking of "Heroes", one of the people making a cameo appearance in this short is Zach Quinto, who plays Siler the villian in "Heroes". He plays an effeminite dress shop owner in our short. Here is Sara's info: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1565066/

Look who won an EMMY!

So happy for two of our good friends, Bryan Cranston and Jean Smart - both of whom earned Emmys last night. Bryan won Outstanding Lead Actor for "Breaking Bad" and Jean won Outstanding Supporting Actress for "Samantha Who", which I cast her in. Very pleased about that.

Bryan Cranston is a talented actor - who has really gotten an opportunity to stretch with this cool role in "Breaking Bad"... so many people know him from "Malcolm in the Middle", but this is totally different. He also happens to be a neighbor and friend. You can hear what Bryan has to say about star quality and being an actor in Hollywood on the AreUaStar.com site.

Ok - let's talk about the Emmys. Other than a nice shot of Ron Leavitt in the memorial section, I thought the evening was a disaster. The writing was awful, the use of the 5 reality hosts fell flat. Were those first 8 minutes not the most painful you have ever witnessed in television?

If I were a viewer with no stake in the TV biz, I would never tune in to that show again. But happy with the wins for our peeps. On a down side, came into my office this am to find that someone had broken in and stolen our video cameras. What a drag. As you can imagine, video cameras are a necessity in running a casting office. So, we'll just have to make sure we don't leave any of those kind of things at the office anymore.... or get better insurance.

Have an emmylicious week. Congrats Bryan and Jean!!

"9 to 5", the Musical

I saw "9 to 5" last night. It's a fun show, based pretty closely on the movie which starred Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda and Dolly Parton. This show stars Allison Janey, Stephanie J. Block and Megan Hilty. Megan Hilty, who starred in "Wicked" was just terrific. What a voice! The whole show was fun, but not great. I thought that Allison Janney did a nice job with the acting, but doesn't have the vocal chops of the other two ladies. There is a lot of movement on stage, set changes and some great costumes. I thought the breakout was Kathy Fitzgerald - playing the role of Roz. She has a show stopping number at the act break that was fun and unexpected.

Actor of the week: Maia Nkenge Wilson. In every scene she was in in 9 to 5, she held my attention and popped. She is fun to watch! Mostly theater credits.

The Emmys - Casting Directors win awards!

Congrats go out to the Emmy winning Casting Directors who received their awards at this past weekend's Creative Arts ceremony. This is the evening where they honor those awards that are deemed not important enough to be part of the televised ceremony. The exception to that is Best Guest Actor/Actress - and those people are usually brought out to present at the televised portion which airs this upcoming weekend.

In the category of Comedy Series, the Emmy went to Jennifer McNamara Shroff for "30 Rock". Drama Series went to "Damages" (Julie Tucker, Ross Meyerson & Avy Kaufman) and the winning Casting for Miniseries, Movie or Special went to Kathleen Chopin, Nina Gold and Tracy Kilpatrick for "John Adams".

Congratulations to all the winners and nominees for their great work. And good luck to all our nominated friends for this upcoming weekend, especially Christina Applegate, Jean Smart and Arlene Sanford!

Nice Review of our movie "Pedro"

Glad to see that today's Variety gave "Pedro" a nice review. Jason Wood, with whom I cast the film went up to Toronto for the film festival to see the premiere and there seemed to be a nice buzz. It's an interesting process when you not only have to cast talented actors, but you have to make sure that they look the the people that the character are based on. Because "The Real World" had so many viewers - everyone knew what Pedro and Puck and Pam and Judd looked like. This was a nice project to work on - very emotional for those of us who have had friends die from AIDS.

Please let me know if you see any nice reviews of the movie in your local papers.

http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117938361.html?categoryid=2863&cs=1

Casting Directors reach agreement with AMPTP

So, the good news is that we were able to come to a tentative agreement last night with the AMPTP. I can't yet discuss the deal terms, because we have to present them to the Casting Directors and Associates for ratification. Hopefully that will happen in the next couple of weeks. Glad to be putting the negotiations behind us and moving forward. We really appreciate the support of our Teamster brothers & sisters. I know it sounds corny, but they are so awesome and behind us, and alongside us all the way.

It's a little frustrating, of course, because we only got pension, health and welfare a couple of years ago. While those of us who have been doing this for a long time won't have a substantial pension when we retire, we are so happy for the younger Casting Directors and associates for whom this is now a career that will provide them with lifetime medical and pension benefits. That is a good thing!

We hope to start another small feature in the next few weeks. It's a horror comedy, small budget film being directed by a friend. I'll talk more about it once we start working on it, but it's a fun script and I'm looking forward to doing it.

I'm enjoying the new season of Project Runway. Was sorry to see Blayne go. He's fun. I am also enjoying Top Design. Is it wrong for a Casting Director who depends on scripted series for her livelihood to love these reality shows so much?

Casting Director Union Negotiation days

I'm on the Casting Directors Union steering committee.  We are Teamsters Local 399 - which also represents drivers, location directors and animal wranglers.  Our contract is expiring at the end of the month, so today we are at the offices of the AMPTP (Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers) to hammer out a new deal.  The AMPTP represents all the major studios and networks - so we spend a lot of the day sitting across tables from the representatives from Labor Affairs departments of the studios and networks.

While I can't comment on the proceedings of the day, it's a very interesting process.  The Casting Directors were without union representation until only 2 1/2 years ago, when the Teamsters organized us and we became Teamsters.  Before that time, we had no health benefits or pension benefits!  We love the Teamsters as they helped us achieve what we could not do individually.  

Shout outs to our union leaders:  Leo T. Reed, Tony Cusimano, Steve Dayan and Tom O'Donnell along with our attorneys for leading the charge.

Actor of the week:  Andy Buckley.  I just saw Andy on a repeat of "The Office" and I am reminded that he is a good looking, funny guy.  Hard to find that combination.  You wouldn't think it would be difficult, but as the great casting dame Barbara Miller used to say "God does not give with both hands"

Kent State - the movie

We are finally moving forward on the Kent State film that I talked about quite some time ago. It's a $5 Million dollar budget and looks to start shooting in February. Our job right now is to attach some name talent to the movie. There are a few great male roles and a couple of strong female roles that we'll be working on right away, then we'll get into the other supporting roles as we go.

Also, some great news for FOT (friends of Tammy). JoAnn Alfano has just been named the Executive Vice President of Lifetime Television. She'll be overseeing Lifetime Television and Lifetime Movie Networks. JoAnn and I are friends and have worked together on a variety of projects in the past including a series for NBC, a pilot for USA networks and most recently the Dove Webisodes. JoAnn was one of the Executive Producers of "30 Rock" and has a long, impressive career in network TV. This is a great job for her and she is going to do really exciting things at Lifetime. Congrats, JoAnn!

Also, announced that Casting Director extraordinaire Meg Liberman is going to head up the Casting department at Paramount Television. Meg was one of my first bosses in television - when we worked together on "Facts of Life"!! She's one of the most highly regarded (and honored) Casting Directors and Paramount is lucky to have convinced her to take the post.

The AreUaStar.com site is going really well. We just added a guest star video of CD Jason Wood talking about getting cast in smaller markets and audition advice. Make sure you check that out, and if you haven't gotten your AreUaStar Evaluation yet - be sure to visit the site to get some real, honest feedback on YOUR star potential.

Actor of the week: Jaime Murray. British actress who came on the scene here in the U.S. in Dexter, playing Lila and now is starring in the new CW show "Valentine".

Artios Nominations for Excellence in Casting

Every year, the Casting Society of America (C.S.A. - those little initials that you see after most Casting Directors names on the big or small screen) salutes their own stars with an award called the Artios. The Artios nominations are out today, so I'm going to go over some of the highlights. Starting with yours truly, nominated for the Casting of "Samantha Who" on ABC. This is my 4th nomination for an Artios, having won once before for "Ellen" way back in 1998.

We've got tough competition in our category this year: Californication, Pushing Daisies, Chuck and Flight of the Conchords (these are all for the original pilot cast). Drama pilots nominated are: Damages, Mad Men, Gossip Girl, Saving Grace and In Treatment. Feature Dramas nominated are: Across the Universe, Michael Clayton, American Gangster, No Country For Old Men and Iron Man and the Comedy nominations are : 27 Dresses, Hairspray, Dan in Real LIfe, Juno and Enchanted.

The rest of the nominations should be posted later today at the CSA website: www.CastingSociety.com

Congratulations to all the nominees.

Actor of the week: Brooke Smith. Brooke is now on Grey's Anatomy, but she's always been one of my favorite actors. She starred in a great futuristic movie called: Series 7: The Contender which is a little bit like the "Death Race" movie coming out now. You know how some actors have a familiar face but you don't really know their name? This has kind of been Brooke's curse and perhaps strong point.

Good news and bad news

I haven't posted in a while, as it's been slow in the casting world. We've got a few things about to start, so I'll share them once they've been greenlit. In the meantime, I'd like to shout out to Ellen DeGeneres and Portia DeRossi who were married over the weekend. I've known Ellen for over 20 years. I met her after seeing her do standup at the Comedy Store on Melrose in Los Angeles in 1985. She had just moved down to L.A. from San Francisco and didn't know a lot of people. I thought she was the funniest person I'd ever seen, and I quickly recommended her for a pilot that I was working on (as a Casting Associate) for NBC. She was tested for the pilot, which she didn't get, but that was the beginning of a long friendship and working collaboration.

In 1992, I had finished law school (I went at night while I was casting "Married...with Children) and was going to leave casting to practice entertainment law. Ellen got a series and asked me to cast it. This turned out, as I've discussed before, to be a career highlight - casting "Ellen". So, my best wishes to Ellen and Portia.

Unfortunately, this week, news also came out about Christina Applegate's battle against cancer. Today I heard that she is cancer free after undergoing a double mastectomy. My thoughts are with Christina and her mom Nancy Priddy. I've know Christina since she was in her teens. She is a warm, caring, talented lady and I'm proud of her becoming a leader and role model in support of cancer awareness.

Actor of the week: Beatrice Rosen - Beatrice is a French born actress who you may have seen recently in "The Dark Night" playing the Russian ballerina that dates Bruce Wayne.

How'd you get into Casting?

Probably one of the most common questions I am asked is about how I got into Casting. I can tell you that, at least when I started, no one WANTED to be a Casting Director. It wasn't a career path that people considered... it was just something that people fell into. Now that we have health and pension benefits (only for the past 18 months - thanks to the great work of the Teamsters) - people might actually consider Casting as a viable career option.

I started, as many CDs do, as an actress. I was in lots of children's theatre and high school productions and then went to UCLA as a Theatre major. When I got to UCLA, I quickly realized that there were a lot of other actors who were more beautiful and more talented than I was and so I shifted my focus to behind the scenes. This has always served me well as a CD, because I think I really can empathize with the actors who come into my office.

I got an internship at Fenton- Feinberg (Mike Fenton and Jane Feinberg) and immediately got to work on E.T. and Raiders of the Lost Arc. I like to tell people that I started at the top and worked my way down :) When I say I worked on these projects, I mean that I answered the phones and opened envelopes. I think at that point, I wasn't even allowed to set up appointments - so my contribution was very minimal.... but it did give me an exciting look into the world of casting. I found that I had a knack for remembering actors faces and names, and that I would go into movies and watch the credits at the end to see who the actors were. Remember, this was before computers were used to do most work - so there was no IMDB to look up that kind of stuff. In fact, at the beginning of my career, we typed out cast lists manually on typewriters and when we made mistakes, we had to use the correcting ribbons. It was very primitive.

When I finished at UCLA, I was offered a job with a busy casting company called Holstra/Ross. Judith Holstra and Marcia Ross (currently head of Movie Casting at Disney) and got to work on a variety of movies. From there, I went on to working for a number of different great Casting Directors (the late Elisabeth Leustig - with whom I did Private Resort - starring Rob Morrow and Johnny Depp and others) before landing in television at Embassy TV. This was a great company. My boss was Stephen Kolzak, who was the original Casting Director of "Cheers". Steve was an amazing mentor - he loved live theatre, knew every actor in town and was really dedicated to casting as an art form. He was also an incredible activist - who taught me about standing up for what I believe in and taking an active role in community organizations. Steve helped me to get my first solo Casting gig, which was "Married... with Children". That was an incredible gift to me, as I was only 24 at the time I took on the show.

So, that's how I got my start. Not by direct intention, but more as a reaction to the reality of showbusiness.... and it's been an amazing career. I feel very lucky to have had such a long and successful run.

Behind the scenes on "Ellen" - the coming out episode

It's been well over 10 years since Ellen DeGeneres famously came out on the Ellen show, paving the way for others. I've talked about my "Oprah" moment before, but I came across this piece I wrote about being part of the coming out episode, so I thought I would share it with you.

the inside story.....

Ten years ago, I was the Casting Director of the "Ellen" show. We had stopped trying to force Ellen's character into dating guys and instead just played up her comedy. I remember Ellen coming to me and telling me how much she wished that she could be out - We talked about when (if ever) the time would be right for her to come out. In the next season, we began laying secret plans for the now infamous PUPPY episode.

But before we filmed the coming out episode, there was an episode that some of you may remember - Ellen went to a rock n' roll camp with Bonnie Raitt and Aaron Neville and David Crosby. They sang a song together at the end. During the taping of that song, Sheryl Crow came out on stage too. The 5 of them were all singing the song, and then Ellen solo'd with this verse: "I am gay and it's ok" and Sheryl, Bonnie, Aaron and David, all echoed "What did you say, you are gay? That's ok!". The audience went crazy... they couldn't believe what they were hearing (Remember this was many months before she uttered her now famous line "I'm gay" in the airport lounge with Laura Dern). Disney pulled that tape and locked it away in a vault, and it has never seen the light of day.

As we started to prepare for the Puppy episode, it was kept very, very quiet. We called it the Puppy episode to try to lead people astray - we coudn't let anyone know what the episode was ACTUALLY about, so we all pretended it was Ellen getting a puppy. The script was being written by 4 of our producers and Ellen . We knew that we had to find a very special actress for the role that Laura Dern played. I recently pulled out my old ideas list and here is who was on it:
Jennifer Aniston
Ashley Judd
Robin Wright Penn
Laura Dern
Courtney Love
Toni Collette
Madonna
Mira Sorvino
Parker Posey
Anne Heche (!! - this was months before they had even met)
Bridget Fonda
Sarah Jessica Parker
Helen Hunt
Jodie Foster
Julianne Moore
Nicole Kidman
Uma Thurman
Tea Leoni
So, it could have been any one of these ladies, BUT most of them were afraid to do it! No one had done it before. Laura Dern was very brave. Ellen and I both spent time talking to her on the phone, and in fact, she almost got cold feet the day before - she got nervous, but Ellen was able to talk her back in to doing the role. I just read the other day that after this episode Laura wasn't hired for any roles for an entire year!

Filming that episode was overwhelming. On the day of the shoot, we had enlisted many of our friends (k.d. lang, Demi Moore, Billy Bob Thornton, Jenny Shimizu) to be part of a dream sequence. The set was so exciting - but only hours before we were to start shooting, we got word that there had been a bomb threat at the studios. Word had gotten out to the religious extremists and someone called threatening to blow up the stage. We quietly and solemnly evacuated and waited until we were allowed back in. We began filming the show - when it came time for Ellen to utter those famous words, "I'm Gay" there was a moment that felt frozen in time, a silent beat, before the entire stage and the audience ERUPTED with joy and cheers. Everyone was crying, especially Ellen, and it took over 15 minutes before we were able to shoot the scene again.

I will never forget being part of that amazing episode of television, watched by 30 million people back in 1997. And now you know a little bit of the back story.

A great man - remembering Ron Leavitt

If you are or were a fan of the show "Married...with Children", then you should know the name Ron Leavitt. Ron (and his then writing partner Michael Moye) created "Married... "Ron came from a journalism background and wrote on shows like "Happy Days" before he created "Married". He passed away in February, but I was thinking a lot about him yesterday, so I wanted to share about him.

Ron was the most intensely loyal producer that I have worked with in the 25 years I have been in the television business. He assembled a crew of people for "Married..." and then used that same crew for the next 20 years - on whatever shows he did ("Unhappily Ever After", "The Help", etc). It was like he was the father of a large extended family and he re-created the same family feeling each time he got a show on the air. Ron was obviously a very funny man, but he also was also generous and gentle with actors. When giving notes to actors he would always start with a buffer... "just the tiniest thing...." so it never felt that he was ordering you to do something, but rather he was collaborating and giving minor adjustments. This is not to say that he didn't have strong opinions - because he did. And they were generally right. He knew his way around a joke.

One spring, a few years ago, Ron had an amazing pilot season. He had 2 pilots ordered at the same time. This is almost unheard of, and it meant that he had to oversee both of them simultaneously. The two pilots were "The Help" for the WB and "The Pool at Maddy Breakers" for Fox. Ron really wanted to be back at Fox because he had helped create the network's success with "Married..." and he wanted to finish out his career with another big hit there.

Ron asked me to cast both pilots, which I was happy to do - but 20th television and Fox were concerned that I couldn't cast both pilots at the same time and told Ron that he needed to hire a different Casting Director. Ron refused. He told them that I was his only Casting Director and he prevailed. I did both pilots. Ron and I had a great time casting them. Ron was a quirky guy - not an early riser- so all casting had to be done on his schedule... nothing before 2 or 3pm. So this meant, that we would cast for both shows, back to back from 3pm - 10pm each day.

Pilot casting is very intense. You generally have a short period of time to get the roles cast, and often you are casting during a time when many other pilots (at least before the writers strike) are being cast, so there is an artificially created feeding frenzy for the actors during this period (February and March). So, we spent a lot of time together during this time. Ron always liked to have some sort of unhealthy food treat around, so he would have an assistant bring fresh pretzels or doughnuts or meatball sandwiches (he couldn't understand why or how I could be a vegetarian) and all of us grew happily larger during our pilot casting days.

Ultimately, "The Help" was ordered to series, while "Maddy Breaker" was not. "Maddy" starred Jodi Lynn O'Keefe (Nash Bridges) and Jill Ritchie (Debs) and Nick Brennan (Buffy, the Vampire Slayer) and The Help had a big cast that featured Brenda Strong (Desperate Housewives), Megan Fox (Transformers) and television names Tori Spelling, Mindy Cohn and Antonio Sabato.

Ron always made working a great joy. He was a great storyteller, loved bragging about his children and loved the small bottles of Coke. Never Pepsi. Everyone who worked with him adored him. His death leaves a great void in Hollywood - he was truly one of a kind and I am glad I was his Casting Director for all of those years and for all of those series.


p.s. My AreUaStar actor pick of the week is: Tara Karsian. Tara is a comedic actress with a wonderfully expressive face. Check her out on imdb. You will likely recognize the face, but may not know the name.

Emmy nomination day

This is always an exciting day for those of us who work in television. Today, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced the nominations for the 2008 Emmys. I'm going to post the Casting nominations below.... and no, we were not nominated for our work on "Samantha Who" this year - however congratulations to CHRISTINA APPLEGATE and JEAN SMART from the show, who were nominated for Best Actress in a Comedy Series and Best Supporting Actress respectively.

Also, congratulations go out to our talented colleagues in the casting world for their great work of this past season. And the nominees are....

Outstanding Casting For A Comedy Series

30 Rock
Jennifer McNamara Shroff

Californication
Felicia Fasano, C.S.A., Casting By
Pat McCorkle, C.S.A., Original New York Casting

Curb Your Enthusiasm
Allison Jones, Casting Director

Pushing Daisies
Camille Patton, C.S.A.,
Meg Liberman, C.S.A.,
Jennifer Lare, C.S.A.,

Ugly Betty
Jeff Greenberg, C.S.A.
Mark Scott, C.S.A.

Outstanding Casting For A Drama Series

Brothers & Sisters
Jeanie Bacharach, C.S.A., Casting Director
Gillian O'Neill, C.S.A., Casting Director

Damages
Julie Tucker, C.S.A., Co-Casting Director
Ross Meyerson, Co-Casting Director
Avy Kaufman, Casting Director - Pilot

Friday Night Lights
Linda Lowy
John Brace
Beth Sepko, Texas Casting Director

Mad Men
Kim Miscia, Casting Director (Pilot)
Beth Bowling, Casting Director (Pilot)
Laura Schiff, Casting Director (Series)
Carrie Audino, Casting Director (Series)

The Tudors
Nuala Moiselle
Frank Moiselle
Mary Jo Slater, C.S.A., US Casting
Steve Brooksbank, C.S.A., US Casting
Stephanie Gorin, C.S.A., C.D.C., Canadian Casting

Outstanding Casting For A Miniseries, Movie Or A Special

Cranford (Masterpiece Theatre)
Maggie Lunn, Casting Director

John Adams
Kathleen Chopin, C.S.A., Casting Director
Nina Gold, C.D.G., Casting Director
Tracy Kilpatrick, Casting Director

Recount
David Rubin, C.S.A., Casting Director
Richard Hicks, C.S.A., Casting Director
Lori S. Wyman, C.S.A., Florida Casting Director
Kathleen Chopin, C.S.A., New York Casting Director
Julie Schubert, New York Casting Director

The Bronx Is Burning
Billy Hopkins
Paul Schnee
Hopkins, Smith & Barden Casting

The Company
Denise Chamian, C.S.A.
Scout Masterson
Diane Kerbel, Canada Casting
Priscilla John, UK Casting
Zsolt Csutak, Hungary Casting

The initials C.S.A. after most of the American CD's names indicate membership in the Casting Society of America. I'd like to give a personal shout out to my friends nominated this year including: David Rubin and Richard Hicks, Meg Liberman and Cammi Patton and Jeff Greenberg.

for more information and the rest of the nominations, you can visit www.emmy.tv

Sometimes, Casting is about timing.

I was thinking about luck and timing as it pertains to actors, and I was reminded of a casting story from very early in my career.

When we were casting the pilot episode of "Married... with Children" (way back in the late 80's), we cast 2 kids to play the roles of Kelly and Bud - and it wasn't Christina Applegate or David Faustino! That's right - in the originally taped pilot, two other young actors had been cast in the roles - Tina Caspary for Kelly and the son of Karen Black, Hunter Carson as Bud. Christina Applegate had turned down the role! It was, remember, a very racy script for that time, and on a fledgling network that no one had any reason to trust. (the pilot script didn't even have a name - we just called it "Not the Cosby Show")

After we shot the pilot - at Sunset Gower studios in Hollywood - and it was picked up by Fox for a series order, the producers Ron Leavitt and Michael Moye decided to re-cast the kids roles and re-shoot their scenes. We again went after Christina Applegate, who had just finished shooting a series called "Heart of the City" with Robert Desiderio. This time, she agreed. To recast the role of Bud, we had to bring choices to the network for a test (this is a common practice - you bring 3 or 4 top choices to the network and then there is a collaborative discussion about who to cast). On the day of the network test, we were bringing 6 young men to show to Fox. David Faustino was one, and our other top choice was Vonnie Ribisi - now known as Giovanni Ribisi. But on that day, Vonnie was booked as a guest star for another show, and he couldn't get out of his filming schedule to get to the test. David Faustino got the role and created that very memorable character of Bud Bundy. But who knows what might have happened if Vonnie had made the test. So you see, luck and timing are factors in the casting process.

On a side note, Ron Leavitt - the creator of "Married..." and "Unhappily Ever After", passed away recently. He was a very special man - the most loyal person that I have ever worked with - a rare quality to find in Hollywood. Ron was gentle, funny, brilliantly smart and extraordinarily generous. He created a family on the set- hiring the same crew over and over again for all of his projects. His death is a huge loss to the creative community of Hollywood.

My actor of the week is: Max Thierot who stars in Kitt Kittridge. Turns out he is from Los Altos Hills, which is where I grew up too.

All quiet on the Casting Front....

This "non-strike" sure does feel like a strike.  It's had a chilling effect on productions being able to get moving.  But it is giving me plenty of time to work on the AreUaStar website, which I invite you to check out (http://www.AreUaStar.com).

Camryn Manheim will be added to the site next week doing a v-blog and she's got a really cool analysis called "Evolution of an Audition" that will be up in addition to her v-blog.  So make sure you check back with the site soon.

I love the 4th of July.  Fireworks and block parties are two of my favorite things.  Pretty sure it comes from being a small kid living on a cul de sac where the teenagers let me light off fireworks at a very early age.  That, and winning the watermelon seed spitting contest were early childhood highlights.

Have a great 4th.  Some big movies out there - I still haven't seen "Get Smart".  I saw "Wanted" and hated it.  Too much blood for my taste.

Will there be a SAG strike?

Does anyone really know if there will be a SAG strike?  And if so, when will it start?  The SAG contract is set to expire on the last day of June, but Alan Rosenberg (the President of SAG) has stated that SAG and the AMPTP (who represents the studios) may continue discussions into July.

So, what does this mean for television and film production?  Well, for me, it means a very slow time.  The writers strike virtually wiped out pilot season, and now the potential of the SAG strike is making it difficult for new projects to be greenlit.  So many Casting Directors are in a holding pattern.

We are waiting on financing for a new film about Kent State.  Hopefully, we'll get the go ahead to start working on that in the next couple of weeks.  In the meantime, I am working diligently on my new website - which you all  know by now is  http://www.AreUaStar.com

It's been really interesting and fun to connect with people all over the globe who are interested in breaking into acting.  The site has had thousands of visitors from the U.S., Canada, Australia, Japan, Sweden, England and Germany.  Apparently,  the desire for stardom is universal.  

I'm also helping my friend Meredith Scott Lynn (you may recognize her from "Legally Blonde" or from her many TV appearances)  with a project that she has written for the actress Tracee Ellis Ross (Diana Ross' daughter, who just finished a very successful run on the CW's "Girlfriends").  Meredith is putting together a table read of her script and I am helping to populate it with strong actors.  It's been really fun for me to work on some projects that- if it were the busy norm- I wouldn't be able to spend any time on.  

So, let's keep our fingers crossed that the actors won't strike - there has been enough down time this year in the television and film business.  

My favorite actor of the week:  Dylan Moran from "Run, Fat Boy, Run".  He is funny, charming and British.  If you don't know him, check him out on www.imdb.com

ok... next please!

Casting Director pet peeves

My number one pet peeve is when someone refers to Casting Directors as "casting agents". What does this even mean? An agent is someone who represents actors and takes a percentage of their salary in return for soliciting jobs for actors and negotiating their deals. In some larger agencies, there are "casting agents" and this means that those agents are primarily charged with working on getting their acting clients cast in television and film.

A Casting Director, on the other hand, is hired by a studio or production company to present a variety of actors, through the audition process, to the directors and producers and to advise and inform the entire casting process. Casting Directors are responsible for the hiring of the entire ensemble, acting as a liaison between the actors and the producers and directors, and working with the actors agents to find just the right actors to fill specific roles. We sift through the thousands of submissions, audition the actors, narrow down the choices and then help with the negotiations of the deals.

For some reason, print media and many people continue to refer to Casting Directors as casting agents. This drives us crazy. So the next time you hear someone say "casting agent", do all of us CDs a favor and correct them. We'll be very appreciative.

Happy summer solstice!

Casting, Casting, Casting....

So, I just finished two fun projects. The first is a movie for MTV based on the life of Pedro Zamora. Pedro was the HIV positive young man on the Real World back in the early 90's. He was a remarkable young man - committed to educating the world and teaching tolerance and acceptance. He died not long after he left the show, but not before having a huge impact on the youth of that generation.

It was a great challenge to have to match actors to the people who appeared on The Real World. We put up the original Real World cast pictures on our bulletin board and had to keep them in mind always, so as to keep the movie authentic. This is different than any casting I've done in the past - usually, I have a blank slate and can fill the roles with people that are not identifiable with real faces. We found a great young actor named Alex Loynaz to play the role of Pedro. This is his first leading role. Jon Murray (Bunim/Murray Productions executives produces Real World and this film) was absolutely blown away by Alex's performance and his ability to take on Pedro's personality. The always wonderful Justina Machado (6 feet Under) plays Pedro's sister. Hopefully, we'll see this airing sometime in the late part of the year.

I also just completed a short film called "Boutonniere" from a new director. I've never cast a short film before, but I just loved the script, so I decided to do it. We cast the wonderful Wendi McLendon-Covey (Reno 911) in the lead. It's a dark comedy about a mom focused on her daughter's high school prom. This film will be on the festival circuit later this year.

It's over 100 degrees today, and my a/c at home is broken. I may have to move into the office - which unfortunately isn't that much better.

Casting Stories

My friend suggested that this AreUaStar blog would be a good place for me to tell some of the fun casting stories that have happened over my long (very long) career.  So, I thought I'd do that.  I'll add a couple every now and then....

One of my best days in casting happened when we were working on the Ellen "Puppy" episode.  That was the code name for the episode in which Ellen was going to come out as gay.  Remember, this in in the pre- Will & Grace era, and it was all very top secret.   We wanted somebody special to play the role of Ellen's therapist and Ellen suggested Oprah.  None of us knew Oprah, so I just decided to call her.  I found her office number and left a message for her, telling her what we were doing and why I was calling.   About 7:30 pm that same day, my assistant buzzed me and said "there's someone claiming to be Oprah on the phone."  I thought it was my friend Lynn  McCracken who would always call my office claiming to be different celebrities, trying to get me to get on the phone, so I didn't really expect to hear what I heard when I picked up.   "Tammy.... Oprah".  I recognized her voice right away.  I was shocked that she had picked up the phone and dialed me herself.  We spent about 30 minutes talking about what Ellen was about to do, and how momentous it would be and she agreed almost immediately to take part in that now infamous Coming Out episode.  I will always treasure that phone call.  It made my very special job that much more special.

Why I started AreUaStar.com

I've had this idea in my head for probably 5 years or so, but I've been so busy casting television shows, that I never had time to build the site. Until now. You would have thought I would have done it during the writer's strike, when we ALL had so much time on our hands, but instead we spent a lot of time in the gym, at Starbucks, on the golf course and baking.

So, finally, I sat down with the help of a creative friend and created AreUaStar.com. This site will allow aspiring actors and actresses from all over the world to have me and my dream team of Casting Directors evaluate their star potential. I've also tried to make sure that the site has good information on it that could be helpful to people living outside the entertainment circles of Hollywood and New York - to help them understand more about Hollywood, and what a career in show business means.

There will be celebrity guest star video blogs (check out the first one - Jane Lynch- from "Best in Show", "A Mighty Wind" and "40 year old Virgin") and interviews with successful people who make an impact on the lives of actors daily. Casting Directors, directors, writers - you'll be able to get straight information from these folks.

And - I'm going to shoot straight too. As a Casting Director for 25 years, I'm hired to give producers and studios my real opinions about actors talent and star ability. I don't pay lip service - if someone isn't good, or doesn't have what it takes - I tell it like it is.

I love helping actors. I've been good at it for a long time, and now I hope to be able to widen my reach, by letting people know what it would be like to be in front of me in an audition - and to really see if they have the "it" factor- that intangible thing that we have all seen in our favorite stars.

So, please check out the site and tell your friends about it. Find out if YOU have what it takes to make it in Hollywood. AreUaStar?

I'll be back soon to talk about our latest projects - including a film for MTV and the Alicia Keys Dove Webisodes that are now airing.

www.areuastar.com