As Roles Go It’s Not Exactly Indiana Jones, but You Gotta Start Somewhere
Seventy-something Lyle Stephen recently achieved a career highlight for a background actor (or extra, as the position used to be called): Director Steven Spielberg spoke to him.
During the filming of a barroom scene in his new movie, “Catch Me if You Can,” Spielberg stopped the action and told Stephen: “Give me a beat.” The idea was that the camera would focus on Stephen as he paused to watch one of the stars come through the door. “The others [background actors] were so jealous,” said Adrienne Omansky, who teaches a city-sponsored acting workshop for senior citizens (information: (310) 559-9677), many of whom land jobs as extras. Stephen is one of her students.
The attention from Spielberg made up for the unsuccessful audition that Stephen had for a role in the HBO series “Six Feet Under”--as a corpse.
Guide to Adventurous Dining: Today’s selections (see accompanying) include:
* A joint in Amsterdam that has no pretensions about what it serves (photo by Raymond Kissack of Santa Monica).
* A restaurant in Tuscany where you won’t find McNuggets on the menu (photo by John Welch of North Hollywood).
* A store offering beef that is apparently 95% fat (Wally Wilson of Downey).
* And, finally, on the Australian island of Tasmania, Grant Mehren of San Diego noticed ... what? An outdoor garbage disposal?
Valley History 101: After setting me straight about all the movies linked to the community, the Web site resedaweb.blogspot.com now has a feature on pop songs containing a local reference.
In the Frank Zappa song “Dummy Up,” for instance, an un-hip character is asked: “Where you been livin’? Reseda?” (Zappa, by the way, attended Antelope Valley High.) Then, of course, there’s the lyric by Tom Petty in “Free Fallin”: “It’s a long day living in Reseda/There’s a freeway running through the yard.” In case you haven’t driven out that way lately, the Reseda Web site says, “There’s still no freeway nearby.”
Title assurance: Mention of people taking seriously the title of antiwar crusader Abbie Hoffman’s tome “Steal This Book” brought a note from Larry Gilman of Encino. Gilman was working at a video shop when a film about Hoffman came out. Some shoppers seemed surprised when told it wasn’t free to rent, he said. The movie’s title: “Steal This Movie.”
Stolen bases are one thing...: The police log of the Los Alamitos News-Enterprise reported: “A large safe was found near the dugout of the baseball field at Cypress High School.”
miscelLAny: Media types have to pay a price if they wish to film or photograph the six live rabbits living among the 1,450 collectibles at the Bunny Museum in Pasadena. Declares co-founder Candace Frazee: “Please bring a basket of vegetables or fruit as payment for their [the rabbits’] hard work performing under the hot lights.”
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Steve Harvey can be reached at (800) LA-TIMES, Ext. 77083; by fax at (213) 237-4712; by mail at Metro, L.A. Times, 202 W. 1st St., L.A. 90012; and by e-mail at steve.harvey@latimes.com.