Emmy Nominations and Morning Shows

July has been a fun month. Since I last wrote you, my parents and I went to Carmel for wine tasting. It was a great celebration trip for Dad's birthday and Mom's completion of her Master's. Carmel was so beautiful! We had a wonderful time. I wish we could have stayed longer, but I had to get back to L.A. I definitely want to go back there again.

My boss put me in charge of the Emmy nominations that were announced earlier this month. My job was to find out who was going to be potentially nominated and create B-roll packages of the shows or the actors/actresses. That way, when the nominations were announced the morning of July 16, we could instantly roll footage of who was nominated. We looked smart for already knowing who was nominated before they were announced.

I began working on the packages one week before the annoucnements. It was my first experience editing on Final Cut Pro since high school, so I was glad I was getting practice. I had a total of about 50 people or shows that I thought were going to be nominated. This does not sound like a lot of separate packages to put together in one week, but when your server goes back and forth from working to not working and another intern downloads illegal software on the computer which completely slows it down, you might have some trouble getting it all done. Luckily, the last night before the Emmy noms were announced, I had lots of help from another intern, Allie, who helped me add any final touches to the packages.

The Emmy nominations were announced at 5:40 a.m., so I came in to work the morning show for the first time. I only slept for two hours the night before, because I was anxious that I might not hear my alarm when it went off at 4 a.m. I fueled up with two cups of very strong coffee and got to work at 5 a.m. - killer! Since all the packages were already put together, my job was easy. We had several phoners call in to talk about being nominated, including John Cryer from Two and a Half Men and Jane Krakowski from 30 Rock. I just looked for more footage of them to use while morning anchor and reporter, Jessica Holmes, interviewed them.

John Cryer, nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series

Our show looked great! Our preparation really paid off. We had the highest ratings that morning!

Despite just how early I had to get up, I really enjoyed working the morning show. I think that is an area of the news I could really do well in. The morning show is a little more upbeat and faster paced. I also really enjoyed getting off at 1:30 p.m. and being able to have a full day to do whatever I please. I'm more productive in the morning. I like to get all the work done first, then play. I loved that I got to go to the pool, do some shopping and get a little run before settling down for then night.

My last week of work I went in to work the morning show again. My boss, Allan, let me go watch how they filmed a special segment outside. The anchors took turns making ice cream at an outdoor ice cream parlor that you can rent to come to your house or party. They did the segment because July is national ice cream month. It reminded me a lot of national network morning shows: outside, upbeat, light-hearted, showing how to make something. I liked it a lot! They gave me ice cream, which was a little odd since it was 9 a.m., but by that time it felt like lunch since I had been awake for five hours.

My roommate, Amanda, and I went to the Magic Castle on July 17 with some other UTLA kids. The Magic Castle is a private club, and you have to be invited to go by someone who is a member. Phil Nemy, our director, invited us as our prize for winning the UTLA scavenger hunt we completed earlier this summer. I expected the magic castle to be like a Vegas show, but it was actually way cooler. All the magic was close up. You could sit at the table with the magicians and watch as they completely fooled you. I was so blown away, wondering how the heck they could possibly do some of those tricks.

Outside the Magic Castle

That Sunday we went to support our hometown Astros at the Dodgers baseball game. It was hot as Hades, so we didn't stay long. Our frozen lemonades could only do so much to cool us off, and we didn't want to pay $7 for a bottle of water. We were winning when we left, but unfortunately the Dodgers ended up winning the game.

It's my last week in L.A. Today 24 UTLA kids and me are going to a taping of The Price Is Right. I used to watch that show every summer morning after swim practice as a kid, so I'm stoked to have a chance to hear, "Maggie Holmes, come on down!" haha! Next time I write I could be a millionaire!

PS- The New York Times published an article of mine I submitted for their college life series. You can view it here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/26/education/edlife/26pompoms.html?ref=edlife

Celebrity Deaths and Fourth of July

Lots of things have happened since I last wrote...

I'll begin with work:

The week of June 21 was insanely busy and rather morbid for all entertainment news departments in Los Angeles. I am in class all day on Mondays, so I missed the death of Ed McMahon and the making of his obituary. When I came in on Tuesday, my boss told me that we need to start working on other people's obituaries because putting obituary news segments together last minute is too stressful. Since deaths are usually breaking news, we try to get word on who is going to die soon so that we have time to put a segment together on them before it happens. My boss told me that he received word that Farrah Fawcett was in the hospital and getting worse, so I started putting together film clips of her life. We made a list of all her most famous works, and started collecting video.

Farrah Fawcett's Star on Walk of Fame

Wednesday morning, June 24, I was eating breakfast and watching my work's news channel when I saw the breaking news that Farrah died. I saw all the film clips that I had helped my boss put together. I was glad I could help them pay tribute to Farrah in such a beautiful, respectful obituary. When I got to work, everyone was relatively even paced. My boss asked me to pull even more video of Farrah. As I was recording clips of her into our server I heard someone yell in the news room, "We have word that Michael Jackson is in cardiac arrest!" Everyone stopped what they were doing. All sources - agents, hospital employees, Internet gossip sites - were being called and searched for word on whether or not this news was true. Believe it or not, TMZ, which in my opinion is one of the most gossipy web sites and worst resources for honest news, was the very first source to report Michael Jackson's death. The news room went nuts! Immediately I was told to drop anything I was working on and start pulling Michael Jackson footage to air. Before I knew it I was doing four different tasks for four different people all at once. Two of the people I was helping I had never even seen in our office before. I would be working on one task and someone down the hall would scream my name to come into the next room and start something else. Normally I have two to three hours to work on two news segments for the 10 p.m. show every night. On this day I was working on about eight different segments, spending 20 minutes or less on each. For a period of about two hours I was the only entertainment intern in the office, so it was very hectic for me. Every reporter was called in. Soon we had several news trucks and helicopters going live from Michael Jackson's star on the Walk of Fame on Hollywood, the hospital and MJ's home. Ross, the prime entertainment reporter, began doing phone interviews with stations in Europe to let them know what was happening in L.A. I remember as I was recording the Billie Jean music video into our server, I saw a live shot from our helicopter on one of the big screens in the control room: the shot was of a crowd of about 200 or more people running down the streets around the hospital. Everyone was going crazy because they thought they were going to see MJ's body. When they officially announced his death on television, a woman in my office started crying. People were running up and down the halls, and papers were flying. When I got off work I was still worked up. Coming home to an apartment of silence was relieving because all I had heard for the past seven hours were six televisions on at once, police radios, telephones ringing off the hook and people screaming and running down the hallways. When I came into work the next day, all the people in my office commended me for working so hard and keeping up with the pace of their breaking news. One lady in my office told me that she has worked there for six years and that Michael Jackson's death was the biggest breaking news she has experienced so far. What an experience to be a part of something so large at my internship. I am getting so much valuable experience!

Michael Jackson's Star on Walk of Fame

Being in L.A. during Michael Jackson's death is definitely different than Austin, Texas. First of all, none of the Austin news stations have entertainment news departments. I am so glad I got to see how my department and the rest of the news station reacted to Michael Jackson's and Farrah Fawcett's death. Second of all, there are a lot of crazy Michael fans in L.A.! People have been hanging out by his Walk of Fame star and outside of his house to pay their tributes. There is a public memorial at the Staples Center center today which can fit around 20,000 people! Amanda and I went out in Hollywood that week and we saw a group of people on the street dancing to Michael Jackson music and wearing Michael's signature hat. Today Michael Jackson is being buried right down the road from my apartment at the Forest Lawn cemetery, which is seriously less than a mile from where I live.

On Friday Billy Mays died. Luckily I don't work on Fridays. I think I have handled enough deaths in one week - haha. But my boss has now made me the official obituary intern. I have about eight folders on people who we believe are in bad health and might die within in the next year. I've been collecting video and pictures of Walter Cronkite, Hugh Hefner, Betty White, Dick Clark, Elizabeth Taylor and others. Putting these obits together before they have died is really sad and kind of morbid. After putting Michael Jackson's obit together last minute, though, I can see why my work would want to get a head start.

Now other things:

Ryan came to visit me this past week! We did lots of really fun things! He came in on Wednesday, July 1, and the first thing we did was hit up the pool. He took me to an amazing dinner at the best sushi place in Hollywood, Katsuya. There were tons of paparazzi outside of the restaurant. I was really hoping Ryan would get a celebrity siting on his first night, but we never saw anyone. On Thursday, I took him to my work to show him around the news station. Then we went to Santa Monica to watch a taping of Chelsea Lately. We got to sit in the front row, thanks to Ryan's sister who got us the tickets. We had a great time, and Chelsea Handler was really funny. Thursday night I cooked Ryan dinner, and then we went clubbing in Hollywood. A bunch of UTLA kids came too. We went to Ecco Lounge where the bouncer was one of the actors in the movie Forgetting Sarah Marshall. We had a really good time dancing and people watching - haha! On Friday we went hiking at Griffith Park. We went a little off trail to pick up the intensity of our hike. Ryan did great, but he had to stop a couple times to wait for me. It was so steep! The view at the top of the mountain was awesome though! You could see the entire city. That night we went to get dinner and drinks at Lola's, which was a place the girls went on MTV's The Hills show. We grabbed after dinner cocktails at the SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills with some 30 year olds (inside joke). Saturday was the fourth of July and it was such a blast! We spent the entire day at Manhattan Beach with a group of UTLA kids. Everyone got intense sunburns, but it was worth it, because we had so much fun! Sunday we went to eat at a little French cafe on Sunset, and then I took Ryan for a drive around Beverly Hills. I showed him what we could see of the Playboy mansion and Aaron Spelling's mansion, which is currently the most expensive home on the market in the United States. I've decided that I need to find a job that will support my Beverly Hills mansion purchase -haha! It was sad saying goodbye to Ryan, but I know time will fly fast and I will be back in Austin soon. :)

Ryan and me at Ecco Lounge

Before hiking at Griffith Park

Fourth of July at Manhattan Beach

Living Horizontally

Everything in L.A. has been going so smoothly. I have had so much fun making friends, learning cool things at my internship and exploring L.A. I guess it couldn't be this perfect all summer long, right? Which is why God gave me this small chapter of my summer called "Living Horizontally," because that is exactly what I've been doing for the past week.

I got a severe headache on my way to work last week. I felt terrible when I got home at 11 p.m., so I went straight to bed but did not sleep one wink. My hands and feet were ice, but my head felt like a volcano. For some reason, since I was a kid, I have never carried around medicine, and I have never liked to take medicine. Desperate and exhausted, I called my parents crying at 4 a.m. They told me what medicine to go buy and to call in sick to work. My parents offered their always loving support, but they also reminded me that yes, I am 21 years old, and yes, I can take care of myself. If my life was a movie, this could be thought of as my revelation moment. I came to the shocking realization that I am no longer a child... and it was serious this time. In Texas, I could easily call on my sorority house mom to give me medicine or drive home for extra care. But not here. Being as sick as I was while away from my parents was scary, because I had never been sick like that before. But it was now time to embrace my adulthood and take care of myself. Although my head was throbbing and I could not talk or swallow due to the sores on the back of my throat, I got in the car and drove myself to CVS. I obtained an antibiotic from my doctor back home for strep throat and flu, and I cemented myself to the couch.

One week and a bottle of NyQuil later, I am feeling like myself again! I feel really proud of myself for surviving what I thought last week I would never get through alone. I know I sound dramatic, but when you are by yourself and that sick, the days ahead can look really bleak.

I went back to work today, and I felt proud of myself there, too! My hours at work have changed, and I am doing more preparing for the show now. My boss has me doing a lot of the work by myself. I was seriously left alone for three hours, locating film and editing clips today. I enjoy feeling like I'm contributing to the show, even though what I do is just a small fragment of the show as a whole. I'm proud of what I have learned and how quickly I have learned it. I get scared sometimes that I might do something wrong since this is all new to me, but I'm glad my boss trusts me. I unfortunately do not think I will be going out into the field as much as I was. The station has had to relocate a lot of people because of their budget, and Allan cannot go out with Ross anymore to supervise me. But, there are several premieres and other events coming up within the next week, though, so maybe I will get to go to some!

Sorry for not having pictures for this post. There was not much to take pictures of this week, besides me lying on the couch!

AFI Honors Michael Douglas

Jane Seymour

Hugh Hefner with his three girlfriends haha

The American Film Institute honored Michael Douglas with the AFI Lifetime Achievement Award last night at Sony Pictures Studios. I was more involved in the making of this story for our show than any of the other stories I have worked on so far. I did all the interviewing, and I think my interviews were the best I've done since I started. I got to interview Michael Douglas, Catherine Zeta-Jones (his wife), Kirk Douglas (his father who is also an AFI Award recipient), Kathleen Turner, Jesse Metcalf, Anne Archer, Jane Seymour and Hugh Hefner. Matthew McConaughey, Tobey Maquire and Warren Beatty were also there, but they did not take any interviews. My favorite interviews were with Catherine Zeta-Jones and Jane Seymour. The two ladies were so poised when they spoke and looked absolutely beautiful. When we got back to the station, I wrote the script for our entertainment reporter, Ross. I had not written a script for broadcast yet in any of my classes, only for newspaper, so I was excited that I was finally getting to write for a show. Writing hard news stories for newspapers at school has not been my favorite part of journalism. I love writing, but I want to write something more creative and upbeat. Ross gave me a lot of useful pointers. Writing for broadcast is a lot more fun for me because, as Ross put it, the writing does not always have to be straight forward like in print. You can twist what you say to make it more entertaining and engaging for an audience. Ross does not always stick to the script either. There is a lot of breathing room for him to improvise. Maybe its because of my background in theater and dance and my love for performing, but that's the way I think news should be: entertaining. Even if the news story is covering a crime, you have to be able to engage your audience. Afterall, it's television! If your audience gets bored, they will easily flip to the next station. Next week, my producer, Allan, said he would let me edit the film after we shoot, which I've been really wanting to do! I'm learning so much! Also, Allan said that he would let me shoot a "stand-up" at the next event we attend to use for my reel tape, which is like a resume for broadcast journalists that I will be able to send out to future hopeful employers. I'm so glad Allan lets me do so much, and I don't just sit back and watch. Sometimes I get nervous with how much he trusts me to take care of the interviewing, but I guess I should take it as a compliment, trust my instincts and do my best. I know I will mess up sometimes... it's all a part of learning.

The Wizard of Oz

Tonight we went to cover the 70th anniversary of The Wizard of Oz at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandise. The event was celebrating the re-release of the movie in a fun, creative way by having some of the best shoe designers (Jimmy Choo, Oscar de la Renta, Betsey Johnson, L.A.M.B., Christian Louboutin, Stuart Weizman) create modern versions of Dorothy's famous ruby slipper and put them on display. Local artists' pieces surrounding the Oz theme were also on display, along with designer Tarina Tarintino's http://www.tarinatarantino.com/ new line inspired by the movie, called "My Pretty." Her jewelry and clothes were so fun to see!

This was the first event that I did all the interviewing myself. I got to interview George Lopez, Kristin Cavallari (from The Hills), Tarina Tarintino, Debi Mazar (Entourage) and Nestor Carbonell (The Dark Knight). My producer, Allan, let me come up with all the questions to use myself. My favorite was asking everyone what Oz character they'd be if there was a remake. Kristin Cavallari said that she would be the Wicked Witch, which was very fitting for her roll on The Hills, but she was actually a really sweet girl to talk to!

Allan and the entertainment reporter, Ross, gave me lots of tips when we got back to the studio and watched the tapes. Ross has been such a pleasure to work with. He is so fun and entertaining (maybe why he does entertainment news?). Ross also does two radio shows in England and has a Scottish accent, which makes him that much more fun to listen to! He's provided me with lots of reporter strategies, such as sucking on a cherry cough drop before going on-air because it clears your throat and makes your tongue look pink and "attractive" (who would have thought?) and staring at the sun with your eyes closed for 10-15 seconds when it is sunny out so you don't squint into the lens when it is time to shoot. Ross calls me "BB" which stands for "Baby Brinkley," because he said I look like a young Christie Brinkley - haha!

I'm having tons of fun exploring LA. Tonight was my first time downtown. This past weekend, my roommate, Amanda, and I got out to explore some more. We went out in Hollywood to Beauty Bar and Ecco with a group of UTLA kids. We had so much fun dancing! Saturday, we spent the day in Santa Monica and Venice beach. We walked the Venice boardwalk to see how Cali's weirdos compared to Austin's. I had high expectations, but they weren't as weird as I thought they would be... Austin prepared me too well! The picture I took on the boardwalk is hard to see, but its a picture of a man in an American flag speedo with black hightop sneakers who was listening to 90's jams with his mini boombox!

The Taking of Pelham 123

Here are two pictures of Denzel Washington after we interviewed him at The Taking of Pelham 123 movie premiere. He was ready to get to the Lakers game so he was the first celebrity down the red carpet. John Travolta did not come, so after we got Denzel, we left. He was all we needed for our 10 p.m. sound bite on the premiere coverage. Usually the bigger celebrities come last down the carpet and we interview all the other "smaller" celebrities in the movie first. We typically never use them in our show, but we like to say yes to every interview just in case they say something buzz-worthy we can use. It's also nice to say yes to every publicist that asks us if we want an interview with their client so people remember us as a nice group. We don't want to rub someone the wrong way, and then when we want to interview them later, they refuse to give us the time of day. I'm learning a lot about media coverage. I'm so lucky to have such a valuable hands-on learning expereince this summer!

The Hangover

I went to The Hangover premiere last night, and my producer, Allan, let me do more red carpet interviews! I got to interview Heather Graham, Rachael Harris and Ed Helms (Andy from The Office). Our news program used my interview with Heather Graham for the 10:00 news too! I personally thought her interview was the worst one of the night, but hey, they're the professionals. She was hard to talk to, but I think they used hers because she was one of the biggest stars of the night. Ialso got to meet Bradley Cooper, Ken Jeong and the director, Todd Phillips. It was my biggest celebrity spotting so far: Jim Carrey, Zac Efron, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, the cast of Entourage, the cast of The Office (minus Steve Carrell), Audrina Patridge and more all showed up for the premiere. We didn't get to go inside and watch since we were on a deadline, but I can't wait to see it! You know you're movie must be funny if Jim Carrey shows up to watch it!

What else I've been up to:

My roommate, Amanda, and I are working on a scavenger hunt for our UTLA program. If we complete it before June 15 we get to go to the Magic Castle as members, which we're told is pretty special. The scavenger hunt has us running all over LA trying to complete the extensive items on the hunt's list. Saturday we spent several hours on Hollywood Blvd searching for certain stars. We didn't know any of the stars we had to find, but we have to write a biography on them as part of completing the scavenger hunt, so I'm sure we'll find out soon.

I started class on Monday. I can tell that I'm really going to enjoy Phil Nemy's class, How Hollywood Works. All the UTLA kids are nice and really interested in going out and getting to know each other. Monday night we went to Saddle Ranch to celebrate Matthew Robinson's birthday. Saddle Ranch was a little boring because it was comedy night (the comedians weren't funny), but I'm glad I went and got to know more of the students.

Pictures from top to bottom: 1) me at The Hangover premiere, 2) me with my producer, Allan, and camera man, Phil, 3) Bradley Cooper, 4) Ken Jeong, 5) me after interviewing Ed Helms who is in the background, 6) me with a star on Hollywood Blvd, 7) Amanda with a star on Hollywood Blvd.