As I was sitting in the darkened studio at KTLA News the other day, while Anne-Marie Johnson and Scott Bakula waxed eloquently with Sam Rubin on the latest development at the Motion Picture Home, my ears piqued when I heard Anne-Marie praise Sam for his efforts on behalf of Saving the Lives of Our Own, and recognized him for "saving lives."
Recognition is all too often an afterthought, especially in this industry. Names are left on the cutting-room floor of one's memory, having lost their chance in the limelight forever once you step down from the podium.
It's the Monday morning quarterbacking where hindsight is a lonely feeling.
Also read: MPTF Bows to Pressure, Will Begin Admitting New Patients to Long-Term Care Unit
Bloggers however forget nothing, and usually effuse in a diarrheic diatribe where too much is often said. Quantity often trumps quality, and if this blogger is guilty of anything, it would be that his stream-of-conscious sometimes laid waste to those who were more friend than foe.
So for this reason, I'd like this blog to be about those who made a difference, effected social change, saved lives and shared a cigar with me along the way. In the putrid clouds of embargo'd smoke, many friendships were forged, and partnerships struck -- all for the MPTF residents and the future of long-term care.
Actor and SAG uber-member Bill Smitrovich has become one of my closest friends. As an ally, you could have no better man. Smitty was at one of our first rallys. After the Facebook group was formed, I started a pattern of celebrity stalking that guilted many well known people into joining our ranks. With Smitty, it was easy -- he simply said "I'll see ya there."
At the rally, I told a friend to look for a guy that appeared to be a four-star general in civilian clothes. He found him, and over a couple of Romeo and Julietas, Smitty sussed the situation immediately and knew what had to be done. He invited fellow rabble rouser Daniel Quinn and I to make a presentation to the SAG Senior Performers Committee.
It was his prescience that opened the SAG doors to us. Two days later we were sitting at a conference table that had at its head Ken Howard. The earth began to move.
SAG started to get it in gear, and at the forefront was then SAG National Vice President Anne Marie Johnson -- one of the most intelligent, and creatively cunning women I know. That's her yin. Her yang is so full of compassion that there is little room for other salient and human qualities. She is what she is, and we could have not had a more dynamic voice.
The windows rattled in the Century Plaza Hotel one night as her voice boomed down on the MPTF with a fire and brimstone speech that curdled the truffle froth on the oysters being served to the likes of Jeff Katzenberg and his A-list ilk.
