Talent is God given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful.  ~John Wooden

Every once in a while, the Pittsburgh Filmmakers Office reaches out to me to do extra work.  You know, be the person in the background during a scene, the extra movement on camera.  When I have time I partake in said activity.  Why not?  It’s a little extra cash and I think it’s fun to be on set, to see the true workings of a movie or TV show being shot.  Plus it’s fun to meet other extras and the chance to see a celebrity is exciting.

My most recent appearance?  I was on set for a new TV show being shot in Pittsburgh for the A&E Channel called Those Who Kill.  My first appearance on the show?  It was a few months ago and it was almost too comical.  I had to park my car in the background at the State Penitentiary.  Then, I had to move my car into a different parking lot a few feet away, and then my ultimate appearance of that shoot, I had to drive past the house they were shooting from.  Yes!  My car got a lot of action.  I was cracking up as I had to drive up and down the street on cue.  My sister thought that was the funniest thing she ever heard!  I told her, “Ya every time I passed the house, I would turn my head in that direction.”  We both laughed at my silliness.  As if I really thought my face would be seen in the background, in a car, on the street from inside a house.

The second time I made my appearance on the show, I definitely got more face time.  There were a few scenes I was in, even crossing paths with the actors.  Well, you never can tell what will end up on the cutting room floor and what will make it, but chances are with all the exposure I did get, my face will be seen.  Is it important to me?  Not really.  It’s just fun to anticipate my appearance and naturally pointing myself out to others.  I’m not delusional to think I will get a huge acting gig from the corner of a single scene, and I know the Academy Awards don’t have me on speed dial.  I’m simply enjoying life and I try to spice things up a bit and move my own cheese, getting me out of the every day routine.

Since the Grammy’s are this Sunday and the Academy Awards are not far behind, it makes you wonder what it would be like, being surrounded by that amount of fame?  And my second thought, if I had only a few minutes to meet specific actors who would I select?

Some people get totally goo-goo eyed over their encounters with celebs.  Now don’t get me wrong, it is exciting and neat to meet those we watch on TV and the big screen, but I would never pass out over the idea of meeting any celebrity.

Kyle is getting more and more into movies.  I love it!  I am a movie fan myself, maybe not as serious as some, but I do like a variety of genres.  Everything from thriller/suspense, to comedy, romantic comedy, action, a little bit of drama, chick flicks, musicals, advant guard and I love movies that are based on true stories.  Gory horror movies are my least favorite.  I don’t mind the blood and guts, but I like to use my imagination and sometimes it’s taken way over the edge.

Kyle on the other hand loves his comedies.  He doesn’t like horror or scary at all!  I can’t even say he likes thrillers or suspense.  Kyle gets too stressed over the anticipation and the idea of being scared.  I remember watching Coroline with him, the children’s movie about a girl who goes to the other side of a scary world.  Kyle was wrapped around my neck the entire time watching the movie through my hair.  He doesn’t mind some action and some drama, but not too much, he emotionally cannot separate himself and he physically can’t handle it.

Anyway, while Kyle and I have talked about the idea of “Who would you like to meet?” I can say I do have a small yet distinguished list.  Naturally, over the years I’ve thought about this topic and discussed it with friends.  While the names have changed as movies have come and gone and as I’ve matured, there are a few that remain constant.

There are two ways of looking at it, those who are with us and those who are not.  Since Kyle doesn’t really have the experience of liking an actor or celebrity and having them pass away, I stuck to the live ones.

Ladies first, my list of actresses includes Wonder Woman herself Lynda Carter; the lovely and talented Julie Andrews; the amazing Bernadette Peters; the humorous and seemingly fun Cameron Diaz, Hollywood’s current it gal, Jennifer Lawrence; action packed Lucy Liu; and smart and well rounded Natalie Portman.

Now the gentlemen.  My list would include the diverse Liam Neeson; the mysterious yet funny Christopher Walken;  Hollywood’s silly and talented, Johnny Depp; the heroic Orlando Bloom, the sarcastic and dynamic, Robert Downy Jr.; sweet Judd Law; and the newest member of my list, Mr. Chris Ashton Kutcher.

Seems like there are more guys on the list, which was not intentional.  I know there are others I would like to add, but for today, that’s a pretty solid line up.

My list of powerhouse influentials include, Sarah Palin, I’d love to go running with her; Bill O’Reilly; Tyra Banks; Stephanie Meyer; and of course his holiness Pope Francis.

I know I’ve discussed Kyle’s affection toward Oooh I Like Johnny Depp.  Aside from that I really don’t know who else Kyle would like to meet.  He doesn’t really get star struck, at least not yet.  Maybe, he never will.  As time passes I’m sure his tastes will change.

The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves.  ~Carl Jung

You know sometimes I can be a bit of a goof.  That is, for no reason I  just start acting silly.  Doesn’t matter where I’m at, who’s around me, what I’m doing, sometimes I just need to bust free from the moment and escape before coming back to “normal”.  I’ve always been like this, and I forget how my family and friends are just used to me.  Even Kyle knows no difference.  He either ignores me or joins in on the fun.

You see these outbursts have created some very funny scenes and characters.  Example, I’ve always carried the movie Flash Dance in my heart, not because of the good storyline or acting, cause it reached neither, but it was a movie about the passion and love to fulfill a dream to dance.  Ever since I was a little girl I’ve always wanted to dance.  All sorts of dance.  I did take a year of tap when I was a little tyke, but the lessons and costumes became expensive, not to mention it was difficult to get us back and forth to the lessons.  Thus ended my career in dance.  Well, that is to say if I actually had a talent, I could have made a career out of it, which actually I think I could have.

So what does Flash Dance have to do with my silliness?  There are two reasons.  Maniac by Michael Sembello and What a Feeling by Irene Cara performed by Jennifer Beals with body double, Marine Jahan.  I made a dance to each song similar to the ones performed in the movie, kinda.  In fact, one time my sister and I were somewhere and I think it was Maniac came on the radio or TV, and it seemed to stop me in my tracks. I stopped, and turned toward my sister with a smirk on my face, and instantly she knew what I was thinking.  Nicole laughed, gave me a smile and replied, “Yes Heather”, with a ‘My sister is so weird but funny’ type of tone to her voice.  Actually I think I’ve had more injuries resulting from that dance than from snowboarding.  Once, when Nicole was home from college, I was kicking around the living-room to What A Feeling and I kicked her crate full of video tapes with the top of my foot.  I actually thought my foot was broken.  My sister busted out laughing and my brother just sat there with a smirk on his face like ‘idiot’.  I even think he rolled his eyes at me.  On another occasion, I was wearing a long skirt and one of the songs same on the TV for a commercial.  I instantly started dancing and flailing my arms and legs around, and the next thing I knew I was laying with my shoulders square to the floor.  I kicked too high for my skirt and the makeshift booby trap pulled my grounded leg out from under me.  Ahh I guess that happens.  On a side note, as I’m typing this What a Feeling just came on the radio!

Anyway, there have been more songs that I have made up dances.  As an influential kid, besides adoring Princess Leia, I loved Wonder Woman!  Yep the cartoon and the shows.  Of course I was too young to watch the original shows, but every summer I caught the re-runs.  I used to run around in my swim suit, with a head band, those workout wrist bands, and a jump rope on my hip.  I loved the fact that we both had dark hair.  Over the years I created my impersonation of Wonder Woman, and yes it includes spinning around in a circle with my hair in a ponytail, loosely placed, so it would come out and I could run off to save the day.

Then let’s not forget Fame! …. remember my name.  O yes, back to the first paragraph where I wanted to be a trained dancer.  I watched the show Fame on Sundays and loved it, loved Debbie Allen, loved the idea of going to a school to dance! My “Fame” dance included trying to do a split leap and yelling out FAME!.  Of course it was more fun to do it across a doorway to take people off guard in another room.  Now I’m not saying what I accomplished was a split leap, but it was funny.

Then there’s the Dirty Dance dance.  No it’s not bad!  It included placing your arms out in front of you in the air as if someone was dancing with you and moving your hips and feet in a cha cha motion.  Then doing this in a circle just as Jennifer Grey did when she practiced by herself in the movie.

My friend Christina and I made up a few little ditties.  One was the steam press, where you’d set a folded piece of clothing on a chair and the other sits on it and makes a “Purshhhh’ sound, like an industrial iron pressing the cloths with steam.  And of course my favorite, the Bee.  We would fly around making buzzing sounds like we were bees, then we would move our backsides in a direction to touch someone with our tooshies and say, “Buzzzzzip” as if we stung them and then fly off.  If you can imagine a couple of grown young ladies buzzing around you and then stinging you, it was hilarious!  What brought that one on, I truly don’t remember but it was fun.  Ironically, now I’m allergic to bees…

Now I have to discuss Solid Gold.  Yep another one of those shows I watched as a kid in the early 80’s.  It was kinda like a prelude to MTV.  They had their Solid Gold dancers, performing routines to pop songs.  Sometimes they would have a guest singer or group perform their hit song and little skits.  I would again, dress in my swimsuit and try to mimic their moves to the music, so when I heard the tune later on the radio, I would bust out in dance.  Well, this brings me to my final dance, which I did not make up, but has since become a classic.  Naturally it was called Solid Gold, created and executed by my friend Keith.  We were working together at the Ground Round and you know how things get started when you start joking around.  Again, I don’t know how it got started, but I believe I gave my demonstrations for Fame and Maniac, and then Keith out danced me with the best dance ever!  He was standing with his back toward me, turned his upper body around with a jazz hand in front of his face yelling Solid Gold!  Then somehow he was crawling on the floor in my direction.  Hilarious doesn’t even truly describe it!  Not only did I love Solid Gold as a kid, but he made it into such a dance that honored the show.  It was great! Over the years I’ve tried to recreate the dance but alas I don’t have the grace he extruded and his performance power.

I’ve never really seen Kyle act like this and I don’t think he will.  He’s never really wanted to act anything out or mimic a character.  He is just content building his Lego’s and playing with his cars.  Well, nowadays playing with his video games.  To each his own…