contact. please.

my address here, for those of you who care to take up pen and paper (or marmite, or dairy milk...) 

Jenny Twist
c/o University of Dreams
Hitch Suites-Room B 13
250 De Neve Dr.
Los Angeles, CA 90024

USA

go on, you know how much i miss you. letters are important. and not that expensive to send here.

and i promise i am putting together a communal parcel for those of you near plough-land. watch out for it!

kisses as ever xxxxxxx

videos from universal (read the post below first.)

so much fun. i loved it. and i went to it for you guys (you know who you are. thanks for introducing me to them. love. )

i took a couple on my phone too, i'll post 'em up but they're not as good. they're just funny.

      

universal

we went to universal studios today, and being the old anti-tourist cynic that i am i really wasn't that excited about it...but MAN it was awesome!

highlights included

1)a LIVE terminator 2 3D show thing which involved actors playing john, sarah, arnie and doggett-off-the-x-files-as-a-baddie-terminator segueing into actual footage from the film and robots firing guns and stuff. and they had real footage filmed for the show with actual linda hamilton and arnie in, which was worrying and weird(did they really have nothing better to do when universal asked them?) but very cool. sarah connor ran around the room with a gun!!!!! hurrah!!!

2) seeing (and stealing a tiny piece of) the bluesmobile!! well, i saw two actually, the newer shinier one, and the battered one with the huge megaphone on top.

3) despite not being a huge fan, driving down wisteria lane was pretty cool. (desperate housewives, mum.)

4) getting unexpectedly SOAKED on the jurassic park ride thing and then drying off in ten minutes because LA is beautifully warm.

5) getting some british guy to give me free pizza at lunch (on top of my already eaten pasta. :) oh yeah.)

6) being deeply psychologically traumatised - though not as bad as thorpe park that halloween, the actors can't touch you here - in the haunted house by having to push through a room filled with hanging corpses. not.nice. and the texas chainsaw dude, WITH a chainsaw, leaping out at the last minute. i actually pulled a muscle moving very fast to avoid him.

7) catching the blues brothers (well, as close as one gets) live on the way out...and having a cheesy photo with jake. swoon.

last night was lovely too, liz, my roommate, and i, went to westwood, the student village, and went to a shisha cafe, which despite being in manchester for three years i never got round to, and it was so chilled and lovely. and great milkshakes :D

oh and then we went to a place called diddy reise which sam the wardrobe girl had recommended to me, whre you get a cookie/ice cream sandwich for $1.50 ... and they are GOOOD cookies and it is GOOOOD ice cream. 

we just stumbled in at 5pm after a day at universal and all have been asleep for two hours! liz and katherine (room next door, same flat) have gone for a run -more fool them - and are bringing back beer and chocolate.

YEAY

now i gotta figure out the photo putting up business. i seem to only be able to post one per session, which is annoying cos today i have lots.

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UPDATE

so this is a public link to my photos which uploaded to facebook with no problems, it's just on here they take forever and i get bored. so click this to see me on the terminator bike. :D

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2262572&l=2bd3c&id=61400410

TGI friday

what news....

um....

people in LA do weird things whilst driving. today we saw a guy playing a trumpet in the car. two hands on the trumpet, knees on the steering wheel. and on the freeway (5 lane super fast super busy motorway) we saw a man on a black motorbike thing (sorry i can't be more specific dave...it was old, and wide) wearing a top hat and tails and carrying a full sized huskie dog on his lap/sort of lying across the handlebars. ace.

yesterday sam, the wardrobe assistant (22years old, only been working there 6 weeks, is leaving when her job is done in about 3 weeks) took me out to target, a massive supermarket that sells literally everything except groceries. everything. things i didn't know existed. i got a phone for $15 to use over here, and some nice blue eyeshadow.... ok, i know it's not that exciting. but it is nice. we hung out for about 3 hours running errands! we went to a place called mr oh's, a fairly anonymous looking warehouse filled with clothes from movies going back 50 years, it's crazy. all run by this tiny asian man who organises all these costumes.

oh and i went with sam to the malpaso wardrobe building - ie the place where all clint's costumes for the last X hundred years are stored  - I LOOKED FOR HATS, I REALLY DID. but they are all locked away because they KNOW how desirable they are. damnit. if you wanted an old man polo shirt i could have one like a shot. lol.

sam is great company cos we're in the same boat; we both work long hours and fall asleep at any given moment, we both want to work here and in the same industry, and we're working for/with the same nutty people. plus, she loves "wicked" too. (eat that, tara may!) so we sing along in her car. fab. it's a shame she leaves so soon :( she's going travelling for three weeks or so, so i think she will be back before i go, at least.

other things to tell you...

i have found the trailers for the cast of sarah connor chronicles. i am so excited. there is a guy at work called blu whose dad is an oscar winning editor (he didn't tell me this, i think he's embarrassed about it, but i found out) and he knows the lot backwards and is totally not excited about anything being filmed, but he has said if i get hold of a shooting script somehow he will take me on set. OMG!! can't wait. they film chuck here, all over the place, but it's just not as good as SCC. no lena involved in chuck. ;)

we had a bad time this evening at work when the men's urinals in the offices above us overflowed and pee-y water came through in the costume room, of all places. it was chaos emptying out the room of rails and rails of clothes. monday will be pretty.... there was casting for the film today as well, loads of young wannabe latino actors coming in and yelling behind closed doors.

ooh, and we have a mission on the lot; well, in malpaso, to bring back the squirrels which up until a month ago would come in the windows and sit on the desks; they're being caught and "sent to live in griffith park", which i think may be like what they told joey about the chick and the duck on friends. so we are sabotaging traps and have a phone network in action for any squirrel sightings. i think it's hilarious but blu and karen take it very seriously and it gets me time outside the production office chasing across lawns so... hahah!

what i should mention and don't want to is the impending possibility of a SAG (screen actor's guild) strike. their deadline to sort things out with the big motion picture companies is june 30th, and they've been arguing since march. everyone is praying it gets settled, and we're all keeping our heads down, but if the worst comes to the worst and the actors strike, we're in BIG trouble. and i do NOT have enough money to support a six week HOLIDAY!!

(did you sort out my rent, padre????? i hope so. )

and i'm sure there's other tidbits, like meeting john wayne's granddaughter, and people seeing britney spears and david beckham, and the girl who interns upstairs from me talking to george clooney for ten minutes yesterday before realising who he was...we're going to see 'wanted' on monday too. hooray for angelina!

but importantly: i miss you. and i love it here, but it isn't right without you all. and i wish so much that i could just pop open a portal and come home for dinner, or go dancing in the pub on fridays, or sit in the cinema with my manchester girlies and just gossip. sigh. i am thinking of you.

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FAO Chris and Dave if they read this

there is a man who works here who worked on the blues brothers movie. and he is not in today but when he is i promise i will get him to tell me stories about it for you.

ps. we're goign to universal studios on saturday and there's a blues brothers stage thing there; presumably one of the set pieces from the film. I WILL TAKE PICS FOR YOU

kisses (or not?)

xxxxxxxxxxxx

UPDATE:

if you email a pic of the blues brothers bbq we had (i'm thinking the chris in the rain with the umbrella on the leopard print seat) only a low qulaity one, i'm not trying to rip you off dave ;)

then maybe i can show it to mike and he will see how dedicated to the blues brothers cause y'all are..and then he can send you the original blues brothers hats. right?

x

contact details

just in case there is anyone other than my ma reading this, feel free to post comments on the end of an entry - go on.. just to keep me occupied.

or just mail me jennymegan@btinternet.com

i like to know all the gossip. go get it for me. 

ooh, and mum, did you remember to get my wages from work? thank yooooou 

xxx

first day at warner

i did it! got up at 7, went to breakfast (i haven't expounded on the food situation yet have i...? it's crazy. it's like you swipe your pass and have access to a world of free food. and it's all my favourite stuff. i can have ice cream for breakfast. and nothing but pizza and three slices of cherry pie for dinner. which is not to say that i HAVE DONE.. yet. ) and caught my "shuttle" to work - ten of us all heading in a similar direction.

found my malpaso offices - next to george clooney's parking place, hahah, ad met karen, my very sweet and overworked boss. she's been working with clint eastwood for about ten years on and off, and is apparently addicted to eastenders which plays at 5.30am on sunday mornings here!!! bless. 

there are only a few people left in the offices as the rest are out on location in detroit. there's karen and i, two costume dept girls, and three editing guys - one of whom, blu, i'm pretty sure karen is trying to set me up with. let's see how THAT goes. :)

so i read the script for the film, and got hold of all the crew lists etc, then just sorted of bummed around, answered  a few phone calls, chatted to karen and got stuff figured out. lunchtime we went to the "commissary" (sp?) where the whole world goes to get food; extras, crew, producers, security, evryone. there were girls in cirque du soleil style outfits just queuing up with guys in overalls. AND i got my lunch bought for me. 

highlight of the day was the 4pm fedex run, karen took me down to the drop off point in one of those golf buggies, and then let me drive it back up! (i say let me, it was more like made me, we know how i hate to drive anything new... :S !!! ) and then when we got back blu needed to take some stuff to so she sent me to drive him (for his entertainment, it's not like he's incapable) and we took a wrong turn and FOUND THE SET OF SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES. and i had been sooo cool and un star struck until that point, and then i nearly bit blu's hand off to try and see what was going on... eeek! karen has a friend who works on the show so she said maaaybe i can go see it... this is AMAZING!

the scary part is actually doing the work...lol. answering phones to people who want to speak to people i have no idea about. but it's all do-able. the biggest issue is working the phone; it has like a thousand buttons and then extensions, and i have no idea how to transfer, or put on hold, or change lines... it's almost comedic. almost.  

oh, and there is food EVERYWHERE. including pots of sweets (especially in clint's office, what is tha tabout?) clint is at his ranch right now, but may come in before filming starts on july 14th. frankly i'm terrified that he will! i'm told he will tease me.   hm. !!

pick up time at 6.20 pm, got stuck in hideous traffic jam, where people were actually walking up the lines of cars selling tshirts (!) and we got lost again.. but it was all made worth it as we were going 2mph down sunset blvd and realise that the guy in the beaten up car next to us is actually a dishevelled COLIN FARRELL. he suddenly realised a van full of girls were pawing the windows to get at him, and had the grace to look a bit embarrassed and drop back, but we were next to him for about ten minutes. poor guy. 

so that was my day :)

i am still super jetlagged and my eyes keep closing at 4pm, but i am coping!! 

wish me luck stalking sarah connor

kisses

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day uno

i'm here

whoop!

i had a MINOR freak out last night before leaving, involving driving out into the pouring rain at 1am blubbing like a small baby because the party at home was too noisy to let my addled self sleep. sigh. and everyone's emotional goodbyes were a bit much... thank you all lovelies. i AM reachable by text but i may not reply in an effort to save money. i appreciate every message though. :)

but now i am in the sunshine and all is well! i ended up on the plane next to a guy from birmingham uni who's doing this course too, working in warner music, so we got a taxi together with a girl from royal holloway who we met up with in the airport.

roommates are fantastic, i somehow ended up rooming with a real life cynic who's interning at a record label and we take the pee out of the inspirational speeches we're given together. hooray! 

tomorrow is orientation day so i get to see just how long it does take to get to work in the morning. gulp.

tonight was spent in a haze of energy pills (the last one, CHRISTOPHER) and jet lag, playing the super bonding get-to-know-you-games that all americans except my wonderful cynics seem to love. 

it's 29 degrees which is just right, and the evenings are warm but not too much so. 

mmm...there is no kitchen here which means i will have to get up and go to the cafeteria for my food! noooooo. 

i am teaching people to say "car park" and not "parking lot", and "half nine" instead of "nine thirty". it's like a mini revolution.

love you all

xxxxxxxxx

UPDATE!!! BEX!! one of my roomates was on the same flight into LA as patrick dempsey! she got pics of him from a distance. he went coach class too. he has lovely curls at the moment. bless. VIVA GREY'S ANATOMY x

nearly there..

two days to go! and i am spending all my time in the pub or sleeping on someone's (you know who you are) couch. not really had much time to see the family but they are all hard at work/school.
just wanted to put this uber cute picture of my goddaughter up here
<-------- how gorgeous is she???

don't have too much to say..other than does anyone have an ethernet cable they want to give me? or any money, y'know, that goes down well too...

ARGH two days until sunshine and smog and no stars at night and "stars" in the daytime and hard work and americans and movies and tomAYtoes and roommates and panic

here's the lowdown

2 weeks to go.....

so for those who don’t know or aren’t clear (I forget who I explained to, so many people have asked me), I was going to be working in warner independent, an offshoot of warner bros that handled the low budget/art films picked up by the studio, but they went bust under pressure from fox’s rival company (searchlight) so I was thrown back into the interviewing stages in late may for a june start!!
chaos ensued, but in the end it worked out well as now I am to be in the LA production studio owned by clint eastwood (malpaso productions) who essentially only power up when he is working on a movie. he’s filming a new one this summer, physically the cast will be working in Detroit (tax reasons or something) so in the studio we will be doing to business side of things and keeping the practicalities covered.

this way I actually get to work in producing a film, as opposed to reading x amounts of scripts a day in a larger studio. oh, and malpaso are still physically located on the warner brothers lot, so I will be wandering the avenues where the start of the ‘friends’ credits were filmed…and where Johnny depp could be just around the corner coughHELENcough. hahaha. the flipside of this is that it takes about an hour and half to get there in the morning with the traffic; and they want me IN at 8am…so somebody do the maths and tell me when I have to get up?? I don’t even want to know. I think I will just culture my jetlag so that 8am in the morning there is like 4pm for me. !

I am living in UCLA halls with a bunch of other students doing internships in all kinds of industries, and we’re working from june 23rd til august 15th; then I’m moving out into a hostel on santa monica beach for a week for a break!! come visit me at any point. I will find you a floor to sleep on… :)

I will try and keep this updated, and I thiiink I can put little videos on here as well, which I’m sure will be entertaining. please email/write me, as I will miss everyone loads and loads.
email is jennymegan@btinternet.com , and I will put up my mailing address when I know it. and don’t expect wonderful capitalisation on here; I dislike capitals. spelling and grammar are one thing, but capitals just bug me. so get over it, mum!

big love xxxxxx