Couple Take Pitch for Script to the Street

A star-struck couple with a movie script to push, no money and a lot of spunk stood in front of a Century City bank Wednesday, holding a sign that said, “Need 1 Million $’s for Film.”

Passersby grinned. Some snickered.

An office worker who cracked that she wanted in on the ground floor flipped them a quarter.

Actress Teri Garr drove past, saw the sign, and fell on the steering wheel laughing, they said.

But Kathryn Nemesh, 29, who left a job as a TV weathercaster in El Paso to seek fame and fortune in Tinseltown, was undaunted.

“It only takes one person willing to believe in us,” she said, straining to be heard above the rumble of passing Mercedeses on Avenue of the Stars.

For two years, she and her husband, Darren Block, 31, have poured their energies into “Playmaker,” a psychological thriller they describe as a cross between “9 1/2 Weeks” and “Sex, Lies and Videotape.”

To make ends meet, they’ve done all the things aspiring actors do--tend bar, bus tables and sell cars, sandwiches and a dozen other items. They’ve also landed an occasional bit part in movies and TV shows.

But with the script finally finished, and facing foreclosure of their mobile home in Canyon Country, the couple decided that taking the project to the street might just be novel enough to lure an investor to develop the script into a movie.

Friends said they were nuts.

“Maybe,” Block said. “But once you’ve scooped goat poop at Magic Mountain for a living, you’re amenable to anything.”

Added Nemesh: “We aren’t setting any time limits. We’re going to stay out here until something positive happens.”

Soon, a car stopped and a young woman leaned toward the passenger window to ask directions.

Block obliged.

“Oh, by the way,” the woman said, “My father’s a bank executive who might be interested.”

The banker’s office was down the street. In an hour, Nemesh and Block were sitting in an executive suite, making a pitch for “Playmaker.” The banker was noncommittal, but admitted to being impressed.

He took a copy of the script and promised to get back to them.

Stay tuned.