"TAKEN"

“I don’t know who you are. I don’t know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don’t have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now, that’ll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don’t, I will look for you, I will find you … and I will kill you.”

Oh! Alexis

Courtesy of another Myspace "Friend Request." I love and adore "Strugglin'." (Shades of the incomparable Kelly Willis.) Alexis Thompson has a fabulous voice and, judging from the other tunes, an affection for Patty Griffin's "Living With Ghosts." "Strugglin'" is one of the best songs I've heard lately. This girl has the goods. Hopefully, she'll build forward towards more gems. (Like Patty Griffin going from "Living With Ghosts," to "1,000 Kisses," giving us the amazing "Rain.")

Oh! Alexis Myspace

Pete Yorn

Why isn't this guy a superstar? (I guess that's a good thing. If he were, I'd be complaining, "everyone knows who he is," which, would be good for him, but this is more about how I feel.)

Yorn is (somewhat) known for his placid "Strange Condition" and the transplendid "Undercover." Aimee Mann was in a similiar position several years ago - a cult artist who found moderate success with songs on the "MAGNOLIA" soundtrack.

I've never considered a new artist to be one of the best of all time. Hyperbole aside, "musicforthemorningafter" and "Nightcrawler" are instant classics. With "Life On A Chain," "Lose You," "Closet," "Crystal Village," "Murrary," "Sleep Better," "For Us," "The Man," "Ice Age," and the aforementioned masterpiece that is "Undercover," he'll go down as one of the best of all time in my book.

Pete Yorn's Myspace

Kate Hudson

I love this woman. Seriously. I saw "200 CIGARETTES" in '98 and instantly fell in love with "that blonde chick. You know - the new one. The one that looks like Goldie Hawn. What? What do you mean her daughter?" (conversation approximated.)

In 1999, I was waiting at the doors for Video Update to open so I could rent "DESERT BLUE." Yes, the clerk had the same reaction. ("You've been waiting here for what?" )

"ALMOST FAMOUS" fell somewhere in here. It's one of the best films in the past ten years.

Since "ALMOST FAMOUS" - one of the best films in the past ten years - she's made...(can't use "dreck," "drivel," or "vacuous wastes of time," you may work with her one day)..."lesser" films. (yeah, "lesser." Heh, heh, if they only knew what you were really thinking. Good job, my friend.)

Of these, "HOW TO LOSE A GUY IN TEN DAYS" is her best; a solidly entertaining studio romantic comedy.

Kate is one of the most talented and versatile actresses. She can play it all; she can do it all; she can be it all. I hope one day she can land The Role in The Project that fully realizes her potential. If I can correctly use the semi-colon, she can do this.

Dana Parish

I'm a Myspace music whore. (I said "music," ladies. No e-mails, please, I'm taken. She doesn't know it. She's never met me, but I'm taken.) Anyway. So, yeah, I love Myspace music. I always get "Friend Requests" for various struggling artists trying to claw their way to the top of the indie heap. Most of these artists will be clawing for a very long time because they sound like each other. (Like, in the late '90's. I mean, really, could anyone tell Puddle of Mudd, Staind, The Disturbed, or Drowning Pool apart? I'm still convinced Creed and Godsmack are the same band.) Anyway.

Indie music breaks down roughly into these categories: plaintive older chick with piano or acoustic guitar; angry younger chick with electric guitar and drum machine; fuzzy guitar band with or without melody; angry guitar band without melody; guy who sounds like Dave Matthews.

Then came Dana Parish.

I got a "Friend Request" from Parish late 2007. I promptly clicked over to her page, ready to deny the request, and "Not My Problem Now" began. I played the song over at least three times. The vocals and melody were the right mix of jazz, soul and pop. Figuring it was a fluke (I mean, everyone has at least one good song, except Nirvana) I clicked on "Hung Up." After I dried my eyes and made sure my blinds were closed during my pathetic display of girl-crying, I realized I stumbled upon a truly talented, truly innovated, truly special artist.

So, do yourself a favor. Go here: www.myspace.com/danaparish. Her new single "Let It Go By" is wonderful. Absolutely no drop-off whatsoever in quality.

Speaking of "dropping," drop her an e-mail, tell her how awesome she is. Drop my name and get 10% off all purchases. (I'm serious. That's not a joke. She will totally knock 10% off.)

"Listen here, Denise."

I work the weekend night shift at St. Jude Medical. That's Friday-Sunday night. (Sounds horrible, I know, but for a writer, four days off a week? Come on.) I always have to wind down after work in the mornings, and I do this with a sitcom and breakfast. I usually pick a show, start from the beginning, and watch it through. Currently, I'm revisiting the wonderful "Scrubs."

While I can't quite count this as one of my favorite shows of all time, it's certainly one of the best, with it's balance of zany humor and heartfelt drama. The cast is uniformly fantastic, but the unsung hero is John C. McGinley as Dr. Perry Cox. McGinley has created one of the most complex sitcom characters I've ever seen - a searingly sarcastic egomaniac who loves everyone but himself.

"Endgame"

Ten years ago, I decided there weren't enough chick spy movies - as in, there were "zero" - so, I wrote one.

Flash forward to now: I pull it out of mothballs, blow off the dust, re-read it, find it's still smart, action-packed and surprising, but needs a new coat of paint. I'm polishing it now.
As a big Famke Janssen fan, she was the model for my lead character.

Who wouldn't want to watch that?

"ENDANGER"

My teen kidnapping thriller, ENDANGER, is being read by the STARZ network. I'm expecting good things.

The muse of this very smart, very suspenseful screenplay is one of my favorite actresses, Dakota Fanning. (Yeah, go ahead and snicker, I don't care. She rocks.) Very few child actors have exuded as much intelligence, poise and maturity. Some adults describe kids as "little adults" (which is as misguided as it is stupid, but moving on.) In Dakota Fanning's case, it's totally and completely true. She's a 30 year old woman who accidentally wandered into the path of a shrinking ray. Or, she's aging backwards, like Benjamin Button, only not...creepy. Moving on.

Dakota is probably too old now to play the young heroine, Olivia Fleet, who finds herself trying to outwit professional kidnappers. But who knows. At least she knows she's inspired at least one screenplay, and a guy who loves violent horror movies thinks she's ubercool.

Ava and Burt

I finally ordered THE KILLERS (1946) from Amazon.com.

I know, I know - I have it listed as one of my fave films and I don't even own it. "Poser"...cough...

Film noir is one of my fave genres, and THE KILLERS is one of the best - tough as nails, cold as ice, hard as stone. Very few actresses are as beautiful as Ava Gardner in THE KILLERS.

"Total babe"...cough...