Last week, I decided to take a few days off and fly up to Portland, an attractive city where the people are friendly and the food is amazing. It’s a short flight. My friend has a place there so I figured, why not?

When the cab dropped me off at LAX, I was shocked to discover the place was packed. It still looked like the day before Thanksgiving. What the hell was going on?

Agents are a curious breed, so I decided to ask around and every single traveler gave me the same answer: They were all actors flying home after spending pilot season in L.A.

To make matters worse, they looked broken, like soldiers leaving a war zone. I felt bad for them because I knew they had made a fatal mistake. You see, L.A. isn’t a place you can visit for a few months and then abandon. You have to commit if you want to get anything in return.

The whole concept of coming to L.A. from January to March hoping to score a pilot is insane—it just doesn’t make sense. And if you don’t already have decent representation here, you might as well stay home and try inventing time travel. Your odds of success are about the same.

Dear Amazon – take a flyer on this hidden gem!

First of all, no agent will sign you in January because they just spent the last few months building up their client list for pilot season. Second, casting directors who don’t know you aren’t going to have time to meet you because they’re too busy casting pilots. And third, if by some miracle you actually got a chance to audition for a series regular role, you won’t have the experience to do well in that kind of high-pressure setting.

Another problem you’ll have to face is the competition. There are already thousands of actors here who are just like you, except they have representation and several casting fans. They’re the ones who will be auditioning for pilots, not you.

So here’s what you have to consider. If you’re living in any city other than L.A. (with the possible exception of New York) and you’re interested in booking a pilot, this is the time of year you need to start thinking about making the big move West.

But don’t kid yourself. Even if you get here by summer, I’m not suggesting you’ll be ready for pilot season by the start of 2017. Ha! I’m talking 2018, because you’ll need at least that much time to find representation, meet the casting community, and establish yourself as an actor worth hiring. (And that’s assuming you actually have some talent and a fair share of luck.)

Why so long? Well, ask yourself this: What kind of actors book pilots? Answer: the ones who work in television. That’s why dropping in for a few months without TV credits makes you look clueless, like a hick who fell off the turnip truck.

And please don’t kid yourself with tales of actors who booked pilots with almost no experience. Sure, that happens once or twice a year but those people are outliers and they don’t represent the whole. You can’t assume that if one person out of thousands ends up winning the lottery then you will too. That’s false logic and a deluded way to live.

So make a commitment. Rent an apartment. Buy a car. And send the city some flowers. Who knows? If you show L.A. a little love, she just might love you back.


Article first appeared as Secret Agent Man in Backstage.

The post Do You Want to Make a TV Show? appeared first on Media Guy Struggles.

There’s been some rumor about a trip to Hungary to see the amazing architecture and take in the opera at the Hungarian State Opera House (amazing!). And, I may have needed to be in Hollywood to accept my Emmy (yeah, that’s a thing, woo hoo!). And, I may or may not be stalking mirroring following uhhhhhhhhh, reporting on the global premieres of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2 and the fashion of Jennifer Lawrence.

The London Premiere

For this column, let’s go with The Hunger Games. By now, most of you know of my affinity for Ms Lawrence (read: Straight Out of Encino and Dreaming on the Oscars Red Carpet for a better taste of that), so this plum assignment was too good to pass up.

London, New York, Los Angeles, Paris, Berlin with a side trip to Hungary? Who am I to say no? All the big designers has showed up in style for the Oscar goddess: Burberry, Christian Dior, Dion Lee, Mugler, Thakoon, Schiaparelli, and Ralph Lauren,

The Los Angeles Premiere

So just when I was soaking in Jlaw’s Jimmy Choo gold Dory sandals and her gorgeous, goofy command of the red carpet, I ran into Gaby Lorenzo, a Bay Area marketing genius and she shared why it’s nearly impossible not to draw parallels from the Hunger Games into your life and society.

But allow me to digress a moment with this JLaw tidbit from the world premiere roadie as she admitted on the Conan Show that she made a horrible mistake with her first tattoo. “I feel I have ‘I’m stupid’ tattooed on my hand permanently,” she said. She added to is by telling us that she made a pact with her Hunger Games co-stars to all get tattoos when filming finally wrapped on the series of movies. She decided to get ‘H2O’ to “remind me to drink more water.” But she admitted that she got the ‘2’ in the wrong spot – superscript above the other characters, rather than below. “It’s now H-squared!”

“I didn’t go to school…I’m an uneducated idiot.”

Yet, I digress; back to The Hunger Games and its unique life lessons. Whether it’s politics, romance, business, or even pop culture, there are lessons we can draw from the trilogy and apply to our daily routines. Here key takeaways and lessons learned from the Suzanne Collins’s fictional characters:

The New York Premiere

Develop relationships and network.

With 24 tributes participating in the games, it’s important that you make connections (think about your colleagues and business partners). Your friends and allies are your key assets. Whether you need food, medicine or weapons, all of the tributes must rely on the help of others. The Hunger Games are not something that you can participate in alone. Ask for help when you need it. Seek and create resources for yourself and your team. Everything we do is based on relationships and experiences we encounter with media, colleagues and prospects. The relationships we develop over time help us to produce good work and to continue to advance to new adventures, and ultimately grow. Like the arena in The Hunger Games, the world is smaller than you think, and every day I continue to remain surprised at how often paths will cross.

Your work ethic matters.

The Paris Premiere

At the end of the day, there is no shortcut to getting ahead. The shortcut is working hard. Determination is the key to success in all future endeavors. It’s the work, planning and preparation you put in along the way that gets you to the finish line. Like the tributes, PR professionals must remain committed and strategic in everything that they do to produce stellar results. Hard work rarely goes unnoticed in our industry, and the leaders in the arena like Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark exemplify these traits. They also showcase their many values: dedicated, smart, honorable and ballsy to name a few!

Showcase your skills and value.

The Berlin Premiere

Tributes in The Hunger Games must rely on their special skills. This will help them differentiate themselves from the other tributes. The core competencies that they possess cannot only help them win, but also to get sponsorships from the districts (think investors). This is the value-add, and the players in the arena must leverage their special skills – from hunting, to camouflage, to building a fire and even gathering food. In communications, it’s just as important to highlight your special skills. Are you a good writer? Do you know all of social media’s secrets? Familiar with analyst relations? Are you an expert in Adobe Illustrator? Flaunt those skills! Bring something to the table that no one else can offer. For our clients, they find our special skills to be most beneficial.

Just keep swimming.

The Madrid Premiere

While we are not fighting for our lives day-in and day-out, we need to remember to keep breathing. Naturally, the PR and marketing industry is not as hectic as the arena that the characters face. It’s important to look ahead and focus on the big picture – keep trekking through the workday. Whatever you do, just don’t give up. Finnick, a tribute in Mockingjay once said, “It’s better to not give in. It takes ten times as long to put your self back together as it does to fall apart.” Mind over matter in the games is key, and in real life, it absolutely holds meaning. Remember to stay motivated even when the days can get stressful. At the same time, remember that we aren’t saving lives.

As Effie Trinket would say, “May the odds be ever in your favor.”

AD OF THE WEEK/MONTH/WHATEVER

What else could it be than the epic final trailer for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2 and  its $40 plus marketing budget:

The post The Hunger Games World Tour and the Fashion of Jennifer Lawrence appeared first on Media Guy Struggles.

The next great dining destination is just down the 101 Freeway, perfectly centered between downtown Los Angeles and Santa Barbara: Oxnard.

Okay, so where am I? 

I am stuck in my Cohiba-soaked loft overlooking the hustle of the City of Angels. Crumpled sheets of typewriter paper building in the trashcan. Another assignment staring me down; one that is notoriously close to deadline with only a few days to come up with the promotion of the century.

When the going gets tough, the tough get away. Earlier in the week a colleague raved on-and-on about the inspiration derived from the secluded white-sand beaches and Victorian style Oxnard, California. Surely my friend jested as she recommended this romantic, young and relaxing place to get the ideas flowing. And yet there I was flowing down the highway with the Pacific Ocean to my left anxious to check-in to my beachfront hotel and hear the water serenade me.

I held a dinner reservation to the Tierra Sur At Herzog Wine Cellars, a highly-rated Zagat restaurant with the kosher wines and meals. When I pulled up to the complex centered in a converted industrial park that you might think was a small distribution center, I was not expecting the finest meal I had ever eaten.

Now let’s get this straight: I am no stranger to fine foods. I have dined at the finest restaurants on the planet—Noma in Copenhagen, Osteria Francescana in Modena, Italy and Eleven Madison Park in New York City—all ranked in the top 10 by Time Magazine. But nothing compares once you’ve tasted the chorizo lamb sausage on piadina flat bread with black olives, watercress, cherry tomato salad and zahtar dressing from Tierra Sur.

And that was just the start.

We settled on the rib eye and the salmon.

The debate raged while we sipped our wine and awaited our entrées. I mean we could have ordered the Duo of Duck—a confit duck leg and seared duck breast with fennel-green garlic fritter, sautéed swiss chard and smoked tomato-bean ragout and red wine reduction from their wood burning grill after all. I mean why do we always go with the safe choice? Little did we know until dinner was served!

The salmon was a cauliflower potato tortilla Española, champagne leeks, mille erbe and real saffron that was fresher than any Kodiak bear could catch and paw deliver to you in the wild. And the rib eye? Well the rib eye? You mean the rib eye with a mustard demi, fried Yukon gold potatoes, sous vide abalone mushrooms, kale and roasted pearl onions? The rib eye was the best piece of meat I have ever tasted and maybe, will ever taste. I am forever ruined to the 100,000 places all over the world that offers rib eye on their menu.

The Herzog Wine Cellars Limited Edition Prince Vineyard Petit Sirah was a lovely paring that I won’t soon forget.

For dessert, the Gateu d’Ariel, a flourless chocolate cake, was the easy choice, as was the Herzog Late Harvest Lodi Zinfandel that accompanied it. Back to the venue itself…

A couple hundred words ago, I alluded to the setting from the outside. No one would ever suspect the grandeur inside the Inside the wine cellars has a self-guided tour which gives you an insight on winemaking process with an artistic and historic feel. It’s almost hypnotizing as you take in the aura of the countless barrels of wine waiting to be tapped, bottled and served with fine, mouth-watering bites of every kosher meal you could envision. It felt as if I was in the holy land, tasting organic and earthly treasures, salivating for more.

The meal itself was more than a dinner. It was a magic. While my intention was not really to impress my partner, but it easily did the trick as I received an “A+” for selecting a city that holds the highest culinary class in a fifty mile stretch.

Oxnard might be a small, farm city for some, but its delicious organic agricultural appeal will make this a shy, sexy destination with the finest culinary experience you will ever have.

Tierra Sur At Herzog Wine Cellars
3201 Camino Del Sol
Oxnard, California 93030
805/983-1560

Where to Stay:
Embassy Suites Mandalay Beach – Hotel & Resort
2101 Mandalay Beach Road
Oxnard, CA 93035
805/984-2500

TOP TIP: Ask for a beachfront room (see below). If it is not offered, wait for a weekend where it is available. The secluded white-sand beach is sure to please.

This is the first in a series of dining getaways across the Golden State.

The post Summer Dining Series: Heavenly Kosher appeared first on Media Guy Struggles.

As a lifelong Angeleno it’s difficult to always connect with the passive aggressive (and sometimes just plain aggressive) attitude of my New York counterparts. For them, they are more virtuous, better informed and, well, they reside at the center of the universe. Shoot, even most of the international flights are gatewayed through their Kennedy Airport.

LONI ALBERT: Angelinos should come hang in NY because it’s so REAL. I love love love LA, but it feels like one giant movie set. That may be fun and glamorous and “comfortable” — I get it. But sometimes you need more than that. NY is raw and random and diverse. Maybe all the ugliness makes the small glimpses of beauty that much more beautiful.

MG: I have to admit that it was rather comfortable last weekend poolside – 75 degrees – sipping on a freshly-blended margarita. Does that sound soft to you? I was thinking that in about four months that the power would be out on the East Coast as you shovel out from the 10 inches of snow. How do you deal with snow and the anger it produces? LA: Aside from a few days a year, the snow has never really stopped me from going to school, work, dinner with friends, etc. You just learn to deal. There are sucky things like being stuck on the bus for a few hours because the roads are scary and covered in ice, but it’s also kind of sexy to spend a snow day inside with your significant other with nothing else to do but…..stay warm

MG: Tell me more about spending sexy snow days. In L.A., the pretty people do Naked Sundays (a staple in the Christina Aguilera pre-divorce household). Speaking of her, did you see the picture she held up when accepting her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame – just kidding but a Media Guy can dream.

A boy can dream.

LA: Naked any day is always a good idea. West Coast, East Coast, wherever. You don’t need L.A. sunshine for that

LA: (a) I’m not 24 anymore, that was two years ago when we met! I’m a grandma now at 26!, and (b) my title at Cosmo is Associate Beauty Editor, but I’m thrilled nonetheless!

LA: It’s a lot like Sex and The City except I don’t wear $900 shoes, sleep with every waiter at every restaurant, and rarely take cabs. Okay, it’s not like Sex and The City at all. But I do drink Cosmos

One pink beauty…hold the Simpson!

MG: Lola…what do you recommend for anyone crashing a wedding in Vegas?

(L to R: Lola’s buddy Britt, Loni, and Heidi Klum)

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