Emily Belsey

I had my first true Hollywood moment yesterday.

A Hollywood moment is, according to my lexicon, a moment in which life ceases to be routine and passes into the surreal. A Hollywood moment is what you see on tv all the time, but never expect to experience in real life – when a “regular” person meets a celebrity. Classic on-screen Hollywood moments: When Julia Roberts walks into Hugh Grant’s bookshop in Notting Hill and when Monica and Rachel meet Jean Claude Van Damm on a movie set in Friends.

My Hollywood moment actually was a series of Hollywood moments that happened all day yesterday, culminating in one final Moment To Top All Moments.
Over the past year, I’ve gotten to know many people on the lot. One such person in particular has become a good friend of mine. Her name is Lita and she does props on our tv show Cold Case. (Props, by the way, are anything that an actor touches. Props should not to be confused with set dressing or decoration, which an actor does not touch and is a whole different department.)

Lita and I get to see each often on the lot (as part of my job is to stalk our tv shows and see if I can’t show my guests some filming or actors at work), and she’s been good about telling me when and where to see them prepping for scenes. One time, she gave me the heads up that she was prepping a dead body for a particularly gruesome scene on Cold Case. It was so fun to spread the word in the tour department, and we all loved showing our guests a gooey, deeply decayed dead body. Gross, but a very cool gross.

So yesterday, I was on field (patrol the lot and assist guides as needed) and I stopped by Lita’s prop trailer to say hi and pick up some things I’d left at her house on Saturday. Lita was in the middle of making badges for some extras, so she took my picture and made me a badge! I am now a clerk for the Philadelphia Police! Oh yes, you’re jealous, I have a badge.

And if that wasn’t enough, she promised to put my name on a box! I’ve always wanted to be a murdered-unsolved! (Cold Case is a show where the detectives solve “cold cases” – unsolved mysteries. They have a whole file room full of boxes with names of murdered-unsolved, and at the end of each episode, they return the box of info to the file room, only this time the box says “closed.”)

The final and true Hollywood moment came after work though. After work, I stopped by Lita’s prop trailer again to say goodbye. She offered to take me inside and let me watch a little bit of Cold Case filming. Of course I said yes. I’ve seen several tapings of sitcoms, but dramas are quite different and I’d never been able to see a drama tape before.

So we went inside 28A and watched about 15 minutes of filming. They were filming a flashback scene (1970′s, baby!), so none of the principle cast was there (Morris, Pino, Barry, et al.) BUT… the director was Roxann Dawson!

I hear you, who? Roxann Dawson, producer and sometimes-director of Cold Case. Also played the character B’lanna Torres on Star Trek: Voyager for 171 episodes. I totally (and quiely) geeked out for a few moments (i.e. begged Lita for an introduction and just couldn’t stop grinning like a fool), and just soaked in everything. (Sorry for all the parentheses, but my mind is still kinda freaking out from this moment!)

After a few more takes, they finished the scene and called for a turn-around. So while everyone was moving on and packing things up, Lita introduced me to Roxann. YAY!

She is so sweet, beautiful, and really genuine. I can tell that the whole cast and crew really respect her. She’s not a lot of drama, and when you talk, she truly listens.

So I shook her hand, told her what a fan I was of her for her work on Cold Case and then for her role on Star Trek Voyager.  I also told her that my brother would be so jealous right now, as he’s a fan of hers too.  She asked me if I watch the reruns of Star Trek: Voyager on tv and I said, “Of course!  I have to see if you and Tom Paris ever hook up!”  She laughed (she thinks I’m funny!)  I then said it was nice to meet her and excused myself from our conversation (hey, she’s working!).  But before I left, she asked me who I said would be jealous of my meeting her.  I reminded her it was my brother, and she said to tell him hi from her.

Cameron, Roxann Dawson says hi.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 20th, 2008 at 8:57 pm and is filed under Updates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.