Actors and their Roles

Los Angeles, CA—Aside from being a licensed investigator and an investigative TV news producer, I’m an actor and a member of SAG-AFTRA since 1997.

I watched the late Phillip Seymour Hoffman play his very diverse roles with absolute envy.  Hoffman walked away with an Oscar for playing Truman Capote.  Capote was a flaming Gay toad with a real gift for writing that was very comfortable with his bizarre persona.

Hoffman by all accounts was a straight guy with a longtime girlfriend with three children.  He simply had a gift to make any character he played really believable.

Hoffman became his characters, bringing real life to the words written in a film script.  That took tremendous discipline that was very inconsistent with his apparent drug addiction.

My first acting coach at Arizona State University made it clear to me that if I was afraid to look foolish or strange before an audience I’d be better off not acting.   I thought of how I really only wanted to play the roles of the cool guys!  Boy was she ever right!  I simply had to let go of any ego.   

When you’re an actor it’s the casting directors decide what you are going to play.  Most often when you get picked for a role it’s not the one you auditioned for! 

I never once turned down a role.  I got some strange ones indeed.  I played roles such as the testosterone challenged Bob “Bitch Tits” in a stage production of Fight Club.  The rocker Meatloaf played that part in the film.

I played a scary sodomizer, Zed in Pulp Fiction again on stage.  The great line in this film everyone remembers is, when Bruce Willis says, “Zed is Dead.”

Last but not least, I was asked to help develop a very Conservative political and comedic TV talk show host.  However I was required to do this in drag!  It was a Sarah Palen type gun loving “lady” named Zelda McCorville.  This was before Palen became the Republican candidate for Vice President. 

Zelda was somehow resurrected later for two independent films.  Zelda’s TV talk show however never made air.  I was actually having fun in this ridicules and insane role!  

The best-published reviews I ever got were for my Fight Club role. 

I learned one thing about playing these parts, the audience really notices you!  They remember the Zany characters long after others are forgotten.

I don’t know what my next role will be but I’m prepared for anything!  Bring it on please, I need the money!

Watch here as Zelda goes to the Gun Range!

I Want to Make a Documentary Film about the Strange Case of Howard Morgan in Chicago

Chicago, IL—In February of 2005 off duty railroad cop Howard Morgan was shot by Chicago police officers at least 25 times.  Somehow Morgan miraculously survived but currently sits convicted in an Illinois prison for many more years than he has left on this earth.

I wrote about this strange case when it happened. There are still many more questions than answers. 

Something awful happened during that traffic stop in the Lawndale neighborhood that led to a horrific firefight.

Chicago police officials could not seem to find a motive for their claim of Morgan’s attack on their officers. 

The only thing that ever made sense to me was a sudden misunderstanding that provoked the firefight.

I don’t for a second accept the idea Morgan simply went from law-abiding citizen and former Chicago cop, to a railroad policeman and then finally became a mad dog killer.

This case never made sense to me.  It needs to be reinvestigated and I want the job.   I want to do this investigation as a documentary filmmaker.

I will interview the cops, lawyers, and jurors.  I will read the testimony transcripts so I may determine if reasonable doubt existed and if justice was somehow derailed. 

We must remember that Morgan should never have to prove innocence, just establish reasonable doubt of his guilt. 

This case is racially charged because the officers involved were white and Morgan is an African-American.  I think that race unreasonably over shadowed and tainted the case.

I’m convinced that the African-American community had agitated so much over this case injecting race into their efforts was anything but helpful to Morgan.  It simply hopelessly divided the community.

This case should have been treated as it was, a frightening confrontation at night with an armed off duty cop.  Something went terribly wrong.  Once one officer began to fire shots sympathetic firing began by everyone in the heat of the moment.

Did the cops somehow believe Morgan was a dangerous and armed police impersonator? Back then it was a serious felony for anyone but a sworn officer to carry a firearm.  Whatever Id Morgan may have displayed would not have looked like Chicago police identification.

Had the uniformed Chicago cops ever admitted fearful over-reaction or mistake they’d have been prison bound so they had little choice on how to proceed in an unforgiving world.

More than anything I want to understand Morgan’s elusive motive. That of course assuming he had one.  

I’m convinced a well-made documentary film could shed new light on this very troubling case.

I have no intention to crucify the Chicago cops involved and want the audience to hear their side of the story. 

I simply don’t believe that race or hate motivated an unprovoked on Morgan either.  I want to answer the nagging question of just what went wrong in those split seconds in the early morning darkness in that high crime neighborhood?

If a new trial is warranted I’d like to see that happen.

My Chicago cop friends will have to accept that I will be fair to everyone. 

What I need is the funding to do this documentary film. 

Phillip Seymour Hoffman, We Hardly Knew You!

New York, NY—Becoming a successful actor is incredibly difficult for most even if they have talent.

Just getting a decent manager and or agent is a major task.  An actor without an agent is unemployed.

Aside from my investigative and media work I'm an actor.  I did my best work in community theater. 

I’ve had a SAG-AFTRA membership card since 1997.  I did a few forgettableTV spots and  films before a serious hearing loss problem sidelined me.  I have great hearing aids now but my age is not helping me to get motivated again. 

46 year-old Phillip Seymour Hoffman made to the RED Oscar Carpet winning as Best Actor for his role in Capote.  His career was on fire!  

Hoffman was also successful producer and director.  He was currently filming for the Hunger Games franchise. 

Hoffman confessed addiction problems and did a stint in rehab.  His premature death seems to indicate this was an accidental overdose of drugs.   But that is only a guess by NYC police officials that revealed he was found with a needle in his arm.  It will take weeks for toxicologists to tell us what poisons he had in his blood.

Hoffman appeared to be at least 15 years older than he should.  Perhaps drugs played a role in that too.  

It’s heartbreaking to see a talented and successful actor destroy a great life.  I know so many terrific actors today that fight so hard for small paying roles.  Many of them will be shaking their heads in disbelief. 

Hoffman like most of us had demons and I’m sure depression played a part.  He sought help but apparently it was too little too late. 

This kind of thing should make all of us understand that we are our brother’s keeper.  We must help those around us understand they are needed. 

Hoffman’s manager and agent must be devastated by this loss.  Hoffman left behind a partner Mimi and three children. 

Hoffman had many more roles to play, parties to attend and friends to meet.  That’s all over now and may he rest in peace.  

Divorce, Guns and Public Court Records

Chicago, IL—Before 1969 divorce was no simple process in most jurisdictions.  The laws were designed to make divorce difficult with the idea that couples could solve their differences and continue to responsibly raise their children.

There had to be specific grounds and the most popular was “extreme cruelty”. 

There was abandonment and adultery, however they were much more difficult to prove.  The petitioner had to prove that the marriage had not only failed but was dangerous! Without what we’d today call terroristic threats, a divorce would not be granted.

The lawyers would all tell their clients, “Don’t worry it’s only a formality, just sign here or no divorce.”

If you go to the court clerk’s office and pull random case files they’re all carbon copies of each other.

“The Respondent has repeatedly pulled a handgun on Petitioner threatening to kill her” was written right at the top of nearly every petition!

The respondent in most cases also wanted the divorce and simply failed to appear in court to guarantee the divorce was granted by default. 

The petition was always made under oath meaning that in all but an insignificant few cases perjury was committed.

The lawyers and judges all knew the petitions were perjured but they all played along in an exercise of pragmatism. 

I have had a few clients over the years ask me to obtain their parents divorce records to satisfy curiosity after they’d hear extreme cruelty was the basis for the divorce.  It would affect how they regarded their fathers.

In a very large percentage of these cases there was never a gun kept in these homes!

Finally in 1969 the no-fault divorce laws swept the nation to end the filing of these outrageous documents.

Thankfully I’m old enough to know how things were done.  I would have to reassure my clients that their fathers were not deranged gunslingers.  Sometimes it was a tough sell because it made a perjurer out of their mothers.

I can’t help but wonder how many divorce filings led to the rejection of security clearances, job rejections or promising romances after various background investigations.

How Our Sacred Bill of Rights has all but Vanished

Washington, DC—The basic Human Rights Protections given to us through the blood of patriots and tyrants in the Bill of Rights are all but dead.

Should you try and obtain a copy of the simple and plain English version by an Internet search it will be quite a challenge.  Instead you will get paraphrased versions with lots of “explanations” by so-called legal scholars.

The actual text is far too dangerous to publish.  People would certainly be “misled” into believing our government has become lawless and tyrannical.

Essentially the Far Left Wing of our academia all want us to believe that the words don’t mean what they say.  They want us to accept that only intellectually superior people like them can understand simple words.

The authors of our Bill of Right deliberately made tampering with this important human rights document very difficult.   A simple majority vote cannot change our Constitution. 

The Left Wing hates our Constitution and Bill of Rights simply because it is a solid bar to Socialism and Communism.

The United States Supreme Court is made of men and women who are appointed by presidents for life.  They are appointed more for partisan reasons rather than their sound legal abilities.  The Court is politically divided much like our population.

As for the Bill of Rights, the task of our courts is to use it to protect us from government tyranny.   They too often fail in that important mission.  Instead they constantly attempt to redefine the text allowing for tyranny. 

Our courts have allowed for the abolition of free speech, gun rights and have decimated our rights against unreasonable search and seizure. 

After a decade or seven the Supreme Court may review a lower court finding and reestablish a right like they did with the McDonald and Heller gun cases.   In effect a lower court can suspend our rights and if we are lucky some time before we die our rights may be returned by our Supreme Court.

In one strange case Roe v Wade the Supreme Court somehow wrote us a new right, the Right to Privacy.  Apparently this new right only applies to women and their physicians on obtaining abortions.

Without taking a position on abortion rights or the warm and fuzzy PC term, the Right to Choose I can’t imagine how the court could do this in an intellectually honest way.  The Court in effect took a lawless short cut to amend the Constitution.

I can’t tell you how many legal professors, politicians or self-described legal experts have made speeches extolling the virtues of the Bill of Rights and then unceremoniously attacked them.

The Left Wing has invented rhetoric that may sound legally plausible but is pure hogwash.  They tell us the Constitution is a “living document” that evolves with popular notions of today’s politics.  They also tell us our rights “Must be balanced against the collective security needs of the masses.”  Collectivism is what Communism and Socialism is all about. 

I love it when I hear cops, prosecutors and judges say that times have changed, or that in a “Post 9/11 World” we must do things differently. 

I guess that they forgot that the Bill of Rights was the direct result of The Revolutionary War.  They forgot that we have had a Civil War and two World Wars and that compared, 9/11 is an insignificant event!  We never once found the need to amend the Bill of Rights the proper way!

The serious threat of sabotage during our wars never before led to a group of uniformed lawless government thugs like our TSA.

Our Bill of Rights is dead because people have simply accepted the constant watering down of their human rights.  They never get it until they are victimized personally when its way too late to do anything.  

Can Your iPhone Really Be Used to Create a TV News Broadcast Worthy Story?

Los Angeles, CA—With the shrinking TV audience brought on by competitive cable TV channels and unlimited Internet sources technology determines everything.

TV news once provided terrific jobs for photographers, producers and reporters.  Pink slips have been raining in newsrooms all over the world.  Newspapers were limited to putting words and pictures on pulp newsprint and even that was difficult and expensive.

The sheer competition has dramatically reduced the revenue that feeds news providers and their workers. Now they all are scrambling to stay in business, keep roofs over their heads and food on their tables.

Newspaper and television executives are slowly learning that putting their content on the Internet is the only way to survive.  Suddenly anyone who can write, shot still pictures and much better yet video can compete with the incredible shrinking big boys of television.

With these changes newspapers have actually bagged some Emmy Awards for their video stories!  So-called newspaper reporting has changed forever. Today we all carry a sophisticated HD TV camera in our pockets that for most people goes unused.  Anyone can be trained to create a very watchable TV news story with the iPhone complete with voice-overs. 

The issue after training is equipment and its cost.  Editing can be done on any computer or iPad however the iPhone can do that too in a pinch.  Lack of money is really no bar to telling a story via video any more. 

The iPhone does lave its limitations with lenses and microphones but it seems everyday there are new hardware and software fixes being offered.  

Michael Rosenblum of the New York Video School is the iPhone electronic newsgathering Guru.  Rosenblum, a former TV news director instructs reporters in the US and numerous other countries how to maximize the iPhone for story telling.  He’s helping news organizations to survive and roll with the technology changes.

Rosenblum also teaches students the proper use of the less expensive prosumer cameras, lights, microphones and editing techniques.   I prefer using the prosumer gear and I’ve been experimenting with those incredible new GoPro cameras too.   

A real and undinable advantage of the iPhone is that it is easily transported and very stealthy.  Security people that never think twice about iPhones constantly kick news photographers off property.

If you are skeptical that an iPhone can do a TV news story look at the video below.  This was shot completely on an iPhone.  The audio is not perfect in a couple of places but no words are lost.  The finished product is truly amazing.

Watch: Dublin Dockers by Philip Bromwell, RTE News