Meet Josh Hancock –- Hollywood’s auto insider

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Greetings. As the Hollywood/Celebrity car blogger for the UP TO SPEED, let me introduce myself.

All over L.A., people stop and ask me, ‘Hey, Buddy, is that your car?’ They hope that I’m picking it up for some hot starlet, about whom I might have some inside story. However, when I explain my profession to them, it typically floors them faster than a kick to the groin. You see, one of my beats in Hollywood is to consult on scripts, and select which cars should appear in movies, to best represent the characters in the story.

Mind you, this is not product placement; it isn’t marketing to a demographic for the purpose of advertising. I recommend vehicles in which the characters belong. If there’s a new car on the market that would ideally suit the character, I’m all for it. If not…that’s where the struggle begins. I champion the characters’ needs; I work with the writers, directors and production designers, and, yes, I do haggle with the accountants to diplomatically coerce them all to accept the right choice.

Nice cars are like a pair of designer jeans: your butt is meant to look good in them. Remember Goldfinger? Now, picture Sean Connery leaning against that shapely Aston Martin DB5. The car is just as sexy as the man, if not sexier. I’m in the business of finding the jeans that fit best.

--Josh Hancock