Woohoo for Woo! Boo for PR Lady

This man is a legend in the film industry.

He is one of the most famous Asian directors with Hollywood leverage. He directed

Face -Off and Mission Impossible 2. He crafted the iconic image of a protagonist jumping out and shooting people with two guns-one in each hand. He is John Woo.

For a guy with such an action-packed resume, you would expect him to be a lot more slicker, harder, tougher, much like the characters in his films. Instead, in person, Woo is a very soft-spoken director with kindly eyes and a constant semi-grin. With a devout Christian upbringing, Woo hopes his films will promote messages of peace and reveal the grim truths of violence and brutality. He wants to educate the youth and help out poor countries. He's like an artsy Mother Teresa. He reminds me of a certain family member. Which one? I'll let you know when the Audrey Magazine blog entry comes out.
I had the pleasure of interviewing him at the lovely Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills last week. This was one interview where I wish lasted longer because I just had so many questions to ask him. Mainly, how he maintains his faith while working in the industry. But time and four other journalists robbed me of the answers.

When the interview ended, I asked the publicist if she would mind if I took a picture of Woo by his poster. The woman said no problem. After I snapped the shot, another journalist, a bearded, chubby white man, asked someone else to take a picture of him with Woo. Seeing that, I immediately asked the publicist if she could kindly take my picture with the director as well.

The publicist did not see the other journalist taking his picture so she said to me, "oh, you want me to take your picture with him? Like, the two of you standing next to each other? No. you can't do that. I know they do that in your country but we don't do that."

Then, she finally sees the other journalist doing EXACTLY that in THIS COUNTRY, no less. Immediately, her tone shifts. "Oh, I guess they're taking pictures. Yea, sure, I'll take it for you." She hurries over to take my camera, snapping this shot.

Everything happened so quickly I didn't even have time to digest the entire conversation until I stepped out of the hotel and into my car.

"Wait a minute, that was racist!" I thought to myself.

Then a million possible comebacks raced through my mind.

"I didn't know people in America didn't take pictures with each other."

"But this is my country."

"Whoa whoa whoa, that's pretty racist, PR lady. Stereotyping that Asian people like to take pictures with other people is kind of bigoted and narrow minded. You should really read my blog entry about that."

It's insulting that we have to face this kind of discrimination in a country we call our home. But I hope with more awareness, like this public blog post, we will face careless, idiotic remarks like that less and less.

Oh, and if you think that PR lady soured my mood, think again! I got to interview and take a picture with John Woo! God loves me.

Audrey Blog

If you can't get enough of my musings here, check out the newly revamped Audrey Blog.
It's full of scrumptious pictures by the ever-talented souliz, accompanied by delightful anecdotes by moi.Audrey Magazine will be opening a new site come November full of goodies and gems. Be sure to keep checking it out. :)

{ Liz }

Working...

Since quitting my job, I have been keeping myself preoccupied with an abundance of activities. Ballroom dancing (finally got my dance shoes, yay!), gym (muscles shown upon request), job hunting, chinese learning, family bonding, website-building, Jesus-learning, the list goes on and on.

The past month has taken me on some pretty interesting adventures.

I was this close to getting a job with a top-notch, He Who Must Not Be Named celebrity gossip website. I got asked to be on TV twice, once for Extra and once for a Korean Home Shopping Network, both of which I happily obliged (hey, gotta practice that anchor voice somewhere), I was almost going to tutor the child of one of the richest families in show biz (and that's... pretty rich), I have 90% of Guang Liang's beautiful song, Tong Hua memorized, and there are more projects coming but I'd rather disclose them at a later time.

Yet, none of these things brought home any bread for my family and shoes for my (imaginary) children. None of them qualified me as contributing to the society.

Oh--one did. A little. I freelanced. I freelanced as a journalist for KoreAm Journal and Audrey Magazine.

This is where I worked...

...Okay, so no. I didn't exactly work at the famous CAA building in Century City.
More like I worked in the amazing park outside the building. Nicknamed the "Savannah" by my working galpal, the savannah is by far the prettiest park this side of town (save for the Getty) and a completely zen and tranquil location to get some writing done.

I wrote about events I went to, people I spoke with, things I saw. All of which shall be published in the upcoming weeks and which I PROMISE YOU I shall upload to this blog soon. (In fact, just made an appointment to go into the office next week to get digital copies of my work so stop fidgeting impatiently already!)

But something I don't really get to write about in those articles, but which I do get to do plenty here, are what I learned from the events I went to, people I spoke with and things I saw.

what I learned:

I learned about the precarious nature of balancing being an artist and a "celebrity" from Linkin Park and Fort Minor frontman, Mike Shinoda. I had always been aware about the dangers of fame and the blurriness of mixing art with commerce but with the recent temptation of almost working for that famous celebrity blog, I almost tossed out my morals and personal beliefs just so I can receive a regular paycheck every month. Well, not tossed out exactly, but altered it drastically. That was a big NO-NO and I have Mike Shinoda (and JCrisman) to thank for reminding me that.

I also got to check out some of his awesome artwork. His exhibition Glorious Excess (Dies) runs at the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo, LA until early October.

I was humbled and inspired to learn of White on Rice actress Lynn Chen's battle with eating disorders. As a former fat kid, most of my life consisted of fad diets and exercise regimes, overreating and complaints about my figure. I would always distastefully joke that I didn't have enough will power to develop a eating disorder but deep down, I knew that I do have one, as small as it might be.

The fact that Chen, as opposed to other actors and actresses who make remarks like, "oh, I had anorexia, like, five years ago" or the even worse, "I eat whatever I want. I'm just naturally skinny," is so open about her battle with anorexia and bulimia and has even taken to blogging about it to combat her addictions is admirable. It also gives me hope that not everything and everyone in Hollywood is as awful as my jaded view of the business might assume.

There are more. There were weddings and cute boys and "society girls" bonding time and oh yea --the realization that as amazing, free-ing and nourished I feel when I write and report, I don't think I could ever become a professional/full-time freelancer.

I would write for free if I could afford to but my parents don't really dig the idea of their college grad eldest daughter lounging around in pajamas, laptop permanently attached to her wrists.

So let's wait and see what else is in store for me...

Thanks Liz for the Shinoda and Chen snapshots!