Lessons from La La Land

No one has ever accused me of being a saint. I pack a temper, tend to be impatient, and have an unfortunate leaning towards getting even with people who have "done me wrong." Suffice to say I'm a work in progress. I've worked hard over the years to be the person I aspire to be. What I have discovered about myself is that I am nice. I try to take the high road even when it freaking makes me want to throw sharp objects across the room. The word "nice" often has negative connotations though. If the only good thing I can say about a date is "he's nice," then that is the kiss of death. He is done. Somewhat hypocritical I know, but again I'm no saint. But despite all that, being nice still matters to me. I have discovered over time that when I am not nice I always end up paying for it one way or another.

One of the most important things I learned during my stint in LA was, "be careful who you treat badly, because someday they may be your boss." It's true. A while back I worked with a twentysomething production assistant (p.a.) named *Tony. He was the head honcho's nephew and I was "asked" to hire him. I did and he was a lazy, obnoxious guy who knew he could do whatever he wanted, i.e. virtually nothing, and still keep his job. No way was Tony going to get fired. I couldn't stand him. He wasn't overly popular with the other p.a's, (who had to take up the slack him for him,) either. I was polite to him but occasionally let my disdain show. I also sometimes gave him some really horrible crap to do. Ever sit by a paper shredder for 2 hours? Not smart or political, but it made me feel better. Several years later, (my luck,) Tony was VP of Bullshit at a studio where I was working. I ran into him one day on the lot and it was a somewhat chilly encounter. I thus spent the remaining weeks of my job wondering if I was going to be fired. I wasn't, but I learned my lesson, be careful who you treat badly.

Of course the scenario works both ways. I had another job where I worked with a somewhat well known blonde centerfold-turned-actress. *Bambi got hired cause the guys upstairs admired her "spread." She showed up late, never read her scripts in advance, and arrived at work drunk and or stoned. She couldn't read a teleprompter to save her life and could never pronounce celebrity names. Can you say Sidney Poitier? Well she couldn't and we had 4 hours of overtime to prove it... Cut to several years later. I was working on another show and the powers that be were hot for Bambi. They wanted to hire her because "she makes it look so easy." Yea right. They asked me my honest opinion. I gave it. Suffice to say they hired someone else.

Ah karma... ain't it a bitch? It just sometimes takes a while. But it always happens. You just never know when it's going to turn around and bite you in the butt...