Trying a Medium in Which They’re Seen as Well as Heard

Jamie White, the more effusive half of the KYSR-FM (98.7) morning team of Jamie and Danny, was so nervous in front of the cameras in her small part as an MTV-esque reporter in the new Mark Wahlberg-Jennifer Aniston film, “Rock Star,” that she took it upon herself to stop the action when she wasn’t happy with her scene.

“She was acting-challenged, if you know what I mean,” says the film’s producer, Toby Jaffe, laughing. “She got so embarrassed, she decided she was going to say ‘cut.”’

“I had never done a movie,” White recalls. “I didn’t know they said ‘action’ and ‘cut.’ I said, ‘Let’s start over, let’s start over.’ And the director [Stephen Herek] would say, ‘I say cut. I tell you when to start over.’ It was like these people weren’t joking. You think it’s as loose as radio--you just kind of go and do it. But it was so structured that I wasn’t used to that. So now I know what is expected.”

White isn’t the only L.A. radio personality in “Rock Star,” in which Wahlberg plays the charismatic front man of a heavy-metal tribute band who becomes the lead singer of the real band. The popular KROQ-FM (106.7) team of Kevin Ryder and Gene “Bean” Baxter (a.k.a. Kevin & Bean) also play reporters in a press conference scene in the film, which is set in 1985.

It’s been a big year in movies for local radio personalities and TV journalists. KTLA’s entertainment anchor Sam Rubin played himself in the Julia Roberts comedy “America’s Sweethearts,” and the station’s entertainment reporter, Mindy Burbano, appears as a gym teacher in the family hit “The Princess Dairies.” Also popping up in “The Princess Dairies” are the KLOS-FM (95.5) morning team of Mark Thompson and Brian Phelps. And earlier this year, KTLA’s news anchor Hal Fishman appeared in the comedies “Joe Dirt” and “Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles.”

Casting radio personalities and TV reporters is nothing new in feature films. Legendary newscaster Chet Huntley appeared as himself in the 1958 thriller “Cry Terror.” The esteemed CBS anchor Walter Cronkite played himself on both “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and “Murphy Brown.”

New York radio personality Walter Winchell appeared in films as himself. Hollywood gossip columnist James Bacon has popped up in several films, as has Variety columnist Army Archerd. Alan Freed, who was a disc jockey in Cleveland when he coined the phrase rock ‘n’ roll, parlayed his celebrity into several starring roles in teen musicals, and veteran disc jockey Wolfman Jack found a whole new career for himself as an actor after appearing in George Lucas’ 1973 classic “American Graffiti.”

Burbano is a friend of “Princess Diaries” director Garry Marshall and has been a member of his softball team for the past few years. The two had talked about her interest in giving acting a whirl, and she had appeared in two of Marshall’s theatrical productions for children at his Falcon Theatre in Toluca Lake.

Like White, Burbano was nervous in front of the cameras, but for entirely different reasons. “I didn’t have to audition,” she explains. “He created that role for me. It was very nerve-racking. He is a director I always dreamed of working with.”

Burbano has received other acting offers since doing “Princess Diaries,” including one for a short independent film. “I am going in for an audition for another feature film today,” she says. Still, she has no plans to give up her entertainment reporter position. “I am happy with what I do right now. The movie thing is more out of curiosity and a little extra income.”

Unlike the majority of his colleagues at KTLA, reporter Eric Spillman has shied away from doing movies and TV guest spots. He has only appeared in one movie, yet to be released, on the L.A. riots. “I don’t think it’s wrong for TV reporters to be in movies,” he says. “But one of the things that really bothers me is how TV reporters are portrayed in most films.

“We are always in a giant group, a mob, chasing people down and shoving cameras and microphones into victims’ faces. It is just a terrible stereotype, always. I myself wouldn’t participate in a movie or anything that showed us that way. I think there is a little bit of a problem potentially: Is this person an actor or are they a reporter? I would want to be careful about that. There is this perception that all we want to do in TV is just become actors anyway, which is not true.”

Producers and directors generally hire real TV journalists and radio personalities to give their films more authenticity.

“Rock Star,” for example, is populated with real rock ‘n’ rollers, and even the actresses who play the rockers’ wives are either rockers’ wives or girlfriends.

“What director Stephen Herek [“Mr. Holland’s Opus”] and I always try to do is to make [our movies] as authentic as possible,” says producer Jaffe. “Primarily, it’s just because if people are from a world or from a profession and if they have any acting ability, it is just more legit. It just feels more right. So when we were doing a scene where rock reporters were interviewing Mark Wahlberg’s character, we cast Kevin & Bean to stand up and ask questions. And when we needed an MTV-type reporter, we went to Jamie White.”

It was casting director Sharon Bialy who recommended Ryder, Baxter and White for the film. “I actually started listening to Kevin & Bean as soon as I got the job. I thought they were so funny. Actually, I thought they were great interviewers. So when it came down to those roles, I just turned to Stephen Herek and I said, ‘Why not get Kevin & Bean to play the reporters?”’

White was recommended to Bialy by former Playboy playmate Heidi Mark, who is a friend of White’s. Mark plays one of the rockers’ wives. “I met with her and she was a hoot,” Bialy says of White. Although Kevin & Bean didn’t audition for their roles, White did. “She was great,” says Bialy. “We auditioned so many real people [for various parts], we picked the creme de la creme of the real people.”

White was on the set for two days “They were so great to me,” she says. “They gave me a trailer and we went and stole Mark Wahlberg’s beers out of the refrigerator of his trailer.”

She isn’t upset that her scene in the film has been pared down. “I do the interview at the end,” she says. “I had another line, so I think they reworked the movie. But the best part is, I am on the outtake reel they play over the credits.”

‘You Do Feel a Little Bit of Pressure’

Ryder and Baxter decided to do the film because neither knew anything about movie-making in general and because they would only be required for one day. “I wouldn’t say we were nervous, because everyone was very nice,” says Baxter. “But I do tell you that you do feel a little bit of pressure when there are so many people involved in making each scene work. You don’t want to be the guy who causes 40 other people to do something again.”

For the film, Ryder and Baxter were transformed into rock journalists, circa 1985.

“Kevin had a huge wig on; he had huge rock-star hair,” says Baxter. “They did me up as some sort of a geeky British journalist. I had a skinny tie. Hopefully, if we are bad, most people won’t recognize us because we have the silly hair.”

Baxter says it was an eye-opening experience to see how much work is involved in making movies. “Anything we do in TV and movies, we appreciate radio more because [the medium] is so basic and so easy, comparatively. It just takes one guy and a microphone.”