Sunday, October 10, 2010

Is Everyone in One Movie By Now?

In 1975 I was walking on the upper east side with my friend Peggy Michaels, when we were asked to be extras in a movie. It was a terrible tomato thrower called "God Told Me To." There was a sniper on a roof that we were running away from across 2nd Ave. Never saw the movie, but it's in Wiki, of course.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_Told_Me_To

No star was born, to put it nicely.

Then in talking to friends and family this weekend, it came up that each of us had been in a movie or on television at least once. My sis-in-law had won a jury seat on a soap opera and worked there for weeks, sitting in a jury box looking attentive. My brother the cop and I had been on the news a few times and I did 2 Morton Downey, Jr. shows. My husband was a thug on "OLTL" for a couple of years. A local hero was in "The Man Who Fell to Earth". Even my BFF, in the ski towns of New England, made a commercial for television. I pretty much expect my NYC friends and family to have been on tape somewhere. You can't go anywhere without seeing a celebrity in my old neighborhood. But even people in the sticks who never thought of doing such things have done it.

So was Andy sorta right? We may not have been famous, but we have all been on a screen. It was for most of us, less than 30 seconds, not 15 minutes. Maybe it'll end up being 15 whole minutes when spliced together. I hope nobody finds my Downey Shows.

Update: Everything is on Youtube. I walk on at about 3:00 and cross a street, then nearly knock an old lady down.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nMZZc93rUo

No comments: