
The Goodreads signed 1st edition giveaway of What I Wish I Knew Before I Moved to Hollywood ended on Tuesday May 14, 2013. More than 800 Goodreads members signed up for the giveaway. I spent the morning yesterday signing books and bookmarks for the 12 winners. I want to thank everyone who entered and Goodreads [...]
Less than three weeks after its March 03, 2013 release exclusively on Amazon for Kindle, the 2nd edition of my book, What I Wish I Knew Before I Moved to Hollywood, hit multiple Bestseller’s and What’s Hot lists on Amazon. In Kindle Books, it landed at #13 in books about the Music Business. In all [...]
Three years ago, after Chris Brown brutally beat Rihanna, I posted an article that suggested the couple must have been slated to star in a remake of What’s Love Got to Do With It?–the Ike and Tina Turner story. This year, the couple reappeared seated next to Kobe on the floor at a Lakers’ game [...]
One might think that an actor who’s achieved the success that James Franco has would just content himself with being a young movie star. Usually the million-dollar paychecks and lush lifestyle of one of Hollywood’s elite is enough to satiate even the strongest appetite for success. That’s why it stood out to me to learn [...]
One of the great places to learn lessons about Hollywood is the commentary section of DVDs. It’s amazing the insights you can gain from filmmakers talking quite innocently about the process of getting the movie made.
Posted on 02 April 2013
Burbank–April 2, 2013–Since yesterday was April Fool’s Day, I decided to hold off on this post until today lest anyone think I was joking when I posted on Facebook yesterday that the 2nd edition of my book, “What I Wish I Knew Before I Moved to Hollywood” hit #1 in Hot New Releases in the [...] Continue Reading
Posted on 14 March 2013
What's it take to make it as a singer in Hollywood--read what Chante Moore had to say about it in my book. Trying to be comedian? Read what a standup comedian and writer for Steve Harvey, D.L. Hughley and Bernie Mac says. Want to be a producer? See what the Emmy-winning producer has to say. Want a directing/screenwriting/development deal at HBO? My interviewee had one. Want to be an actor? Find out what a star who makes $250,000 a week says about how to become one. Want to do make-up? Find out what the head make-up artist for one of Fox's hit dramas says you should do. Want to rap or make beats? Find out what Dr. Dre and Ice Cube's go to guy says. Continue Reading
Posted on 25 October 2012
BURBANK– Who wants to be a Billionaire Survivor Factor Celebrity Apprentice? The secret is out in Burbank this morning after many attempts to cover it up. Donald Trump announced Monday that he had an October surprise that would have consequences on the presidential elections. Lawyers at NBC, ABC, Fox and CBS moved quickly to stop [...] Continue Reading
Posted on 18 March 2012
Why aren’t white people up in arms marching against filmmakers for Hollywood’s ceaseless portrayal of them as being magical? It must really be sad to be constantly portrayed as such amazing beings when real life is so mundane and nondescript. But Hollywood appears to be in love and when Hollywood is in love, there [...] Continue Reading
Posted on 21 January 2012
There’s been a lot of reporting lately about the importance of George Lucas’s new movie Red Tails for the Black community. The argument goes like this: If people don’t go see Red Tails, Hollywood will never fund higher budget black movies again. Although the basic altruism of White people might be moved by this argument, [...] Continue Reading
Posted on 11 March 2011
Check out my first article on Yahoo’s Associated Content. Let me know what you think. I’m going to start expanding my blog a bit to make it a more useful tool for screenwriters, actors, musicians and other folk in the biz. You should be seeing more content posted in more relevant areas soon as I [...] Continue Reading
Posted on 08 December 2010
It seems lately that celebrities resort to the most ridiculous tactics to promote their new films and albums. With competition for news being what it is, the more sensational and outrageous a story hook, the more likely it will find its place on national news shows and in national magazines. Continue Reading
Posted on 08 February 2010
Sometimes there are no words to describe the level of frustration you can encounter when you follow your dreams. Especially if those dreams lead to Hollywood. When there are no words, make some up. But, by all means, stay on track. Continue Reading
Posted on 20 January 2010
In this article, we will take a look at how actors, models, directors, singers and musicians can find an agent to represent them to Hollywood or New York. Continue Reading
Posted on 14 January 2010
The usual route to finding a talent agent involves sending out headshots or reels (if you are an actor or model) or query letters and screenplays (if you are a writer) or query letters and reels (if you are a director or producer) or CDs (if you are a musician). Continue Reading
Posted on 23 December 2009
The thought of being in the movies might be too unrealistic a dream for many people, but it’s actually easier than you may think. Continue Reading
Posted on 19 November 2009
I want to write something that big so bad. I want to have teens and their parents and grown people who should know better camped outside the theater talking about which is their favorite character. Continue Reading
Posted on 11 November 2009
I have to admit that my initial answer to this question was less than favorable. I’ve attended about 20 film festivals in my life—only four of them intentionally. Continue Reading
Posted on 04 November 2009
I received a question on my blog from a filmmaker and reader of my book. I’d like to answer his question in this post. For those who don’t know, in my book, I refer to the things I Wish I Knew before I moved to Hollywood as “WIKs”. The question is as follows: Mr. Locke, [...] Continue Reading
Posted on 21 October 2009
This is the forth in a series of articles about relocating to Hollywood or New York to follow dreams in the entertainment industry. Part III—Singers/Musicians When should a singer or musician move to Hollywood or N.Y? It’s a good question. And what’s interesting about this one is we’ve finally gotten to a category of entertainment [...] Continue Reading
Posted on 16 October 2009
This is the third in a series of articles about relocating to Hollywood or New York to follow dreams in the entertainment business. Part II–Actors If you’re an actor and you’re wondering whether it’s time to move to New York (the home of live theater and a decent amount of film production) or Hollywood (the [...] Continue Reading
Posted on 14 October 2009
This is the second in a series of articles about relocating to Hollywood or New York to follow dreams in the entertainment business. Part I—Writers. If it’s not obvious to you, let me just state this clearly up front—this is not a question a beginning writer should be asking. In my opinion, the only people [...] Continue Reading
Posted on 13 October 2009
With a book entitled “What I Wish I Knew Before I Moved to Hollywood,” it is inevitable that I would get asked that question. After all, is it really necessary to move to Hollywood to be involved in the entertainment business? Johnny Depp lives in France. Morgan Freeman lives in Mississippi. Robert DeNiro lives in [...] Continue Reading
Posted on 08 October 2009
“Here are some statistics you may not know—there are 120,000 SAG (Screen Actor’s Guild) actors in Hollywood. At any given time 85% of them are out of work. The average salary of a SAG actor is less than $10,000 a year. Most of them are just trying to earn the required $7,500 a year to [...] Continue Reading