Anecdote: A bitter taste of Hollywood

During my continuing stint as Fan Club coordinator, I was eventually approached by a fan who happened to be the daughter of a late great film director and lived in LA. She was very enthusiastic about Walken, as he had just been nominated for an Academy Award for his role in Catch Me If You Can. She told me of how she was "campaigning for him" in Hollywood for the award. I didn't really understand, but I was glad to have someone in LA who might be of influence. She dropped so many names, I was just dazzled. I told her that we'd probably organize an event in LA for the fans and I told her we'd love it if she came. Well, I wasn't attending left the organization to one of our members who I trust and put her in touch with this daughter-of-a-great-film-director. We sent an invitation to Mr. Walken and he did attend. Little did we know that this daughter-of-a-great-film-director had invited camera people to hound Walken and his wife as soon as they showed up. It was a disaster in our eyes as we never want to make Walken feel he's ambushed. Walken probably didn't mind as it was a glitzy night for him anyway (later that night he attended the ICM party) but still, it was not a nice impression.

I wasn't there, but basically the widow-of-a-great-film-director and her daughter took over the event. They came in and pushed tables out of the way and made a huge scene. Once the Walkens arrived, none of the fans had a chance to approach them without these two women and their camera people barreling in for a photo op and schmoozy chat. It was horrific. ( I will mention that not that many fans could attend. The war in Iraq had just begun and many were afraid to fly due to high terror alerts. Still, a group of local longtime fans were there. It was to be a quaint, understated event, but didn't end up that way at all.)

The funniest part of this story was, when the restaurant owner came with the bill, these two women-with-the-name were out the door before offering to pay any portion of the bill for all the camera people they had invited. They stuck it to us basically. It must have been a funny scene to see "Hollywood Royalty" dashing so quickly out of the place in order to duck out on a tab. Word got around and it left a bad taste in everyone's mouth about these women.

Finally, I got a call from the widow-of-the-great-film director (she was also an actress in her day, but her fame fizzled.) She scolded me for not being grateful for their efforts and said if it weren't for them, Walken wouldn't have come to our little event and that he did this as a favor for them. I assured her that he came when invited and that was that, and that I didn't appreciate them turning it into a press event when it was supposed to be a very quiet, calm evening. She reiterated that her and her daughter are "Hollywood Royalty" and that I should basically bow down and be grateful for my bread and water. I politely thanked her for her advice and told her that we're in this for fun and bid her goodbye.

Months later I read a post on a Russel Crowe site written by the daughter-of-the-great-film-director and she basically took credit for Walken's nomination. What a slap to a great talent, as if he needs help to get a nod for his work? Of course was about to do the same thing to Russel Crowe fans. These two women have no talent, only a legacy left by their husband/father. I ended up sort of feeling sorry for them. What an awful thing, to not have anything going for you except your last name. I won't even mention their name as it wouldn't be right take that only thing away from them (and don't any of you post it either if you know who I'm talking about. This is the only livelihood they know.) I do hope some day they both find something worthwhile they can do besides riding the coattails of others.

The moral of this anecdote is a lesson I learned: Don't depend on others to make a name for you, do something to make a name for yourself.