Some Things Are Timeless

According to one of the party guests in "The Cat's Meow", the California Curse is characterized by the following symptoms: One: You think you are the most important person in any room. Two: You value money above all other things in the world. Three: You no longer have any sense of shame or morality.

Well the movie "The Cat's Meow" was set in Hollywood of the 1920's and somehow, today, 80 some years later these symptoms of the "California Curse" still ring true.

In this town everybody thinks they are the most important people in the room. On the road. In the restaurant. They are so important they can't even put their phones down while driving and trying to make a left hand turn.

All this being said. I love living in Los Angeles. I get a thrill out of driving along Hollywood Blvd. and looking up into the hills and seeing the famous Hollywood sign. I love the fact that I live two blocks down from Jack Nicholson. Okay, so, maybe, it's not my house technically. My boyfriend is the one who is responsible for the mortgage each month but Jack is still only two blocks down the street. When I dine at Musso & Frank's I always think about which stars may have dined there. I once looked at an apartment in the Alto-Nido just because that is where Joe Gillis lived in "Sunset Blvd."

I have finally decided that all this Hollywood nostalgia/history obsession is trying to tell me that it is time to start the noir/murder mystery script that has been kicking around inside my head every since I started film school. I know it's not in vogue to write a period piece but sometimes you have to buck commercial trends and write what is in your heart.