Thank You Hollywood

Last night, E and I saw “Letters to Juliet.” It was a charming and funny movie with beautiful scenery – the scenery may have been my favorite thing to look at in any given scene, although Christopher Egan wasn’t too hard on the eyes either. We were able to travel from New York to Italy and back again all within the span of two hours. The movie is not going to win an Oscar any time soon, but any movie that combines Italy, pasta and Bryant Park is okay by me. What I really love about the movie is the fact that Amanda Seyfried’s character Sophie is an aspiring journalist working for the New Yorker as a fact checker. She goes to Italy, and while there decides to write this beautiful love story that she watches unfold before her eyes. Perhaps it’s just because I’m obsessed with the thought of being published myself, but I feel like many of the movies I have seen lately have main characters that are writers or journalists of some kind.

“Sex and the City 2” is coming out in less than two weeks (*cue screams from women all over the world*), and we all know about Carrie Bradshaw - the fashion savvy sex columnist who becomes a best selling author along the way, Sandra Bullock’s character in “The Proposal” is a top book editor, “The Devil Wears Prada” is all about Andi’s desire to become a journalist for a major magazine, Jennifer Aniston’s character in “The Bounty Hunter” works for the Daily News. In fact, I’m pretty sure it’s a solid profession for many characters in movies – especially women. These women of course make the profession seem like a breeze. They are all living in amazing apartments, wearing four hundred dollar heels, and all seem to be in the size 0-2 range, but that’s Hollywood for you. I prefer to focus on what companies they write for and what sort of pieces they write. Sophie’s job at the New Yorker would be a dream job – and traveling to Italy and writing about love…not too shabby. Carrie’s job would be a very close second: Men and Manolos…has that article already been written, or can I call dibs?

The profession is glamorized, and the actresses portraying these writers are not real writers, but it is still exciting to see your dream profession come to life before your eyes. I love watching Carrie Bradshaw get writer’s block, and I love seeing Andi on location at a Dolce and Gabbana shoot in central park. I love hearing Norbert Leo Butz sing, “We start to take the next step together, found an apartment on seventy-third, The Atlantic Monthly’s printing my first chapter, two thousand bucks without rewriting one word.” Okay that’s an off-Broadway musical, and he’s a guy, but it’s still inspiring. It is my dream to sell my first chapter to a publication as well. On the days when I cannot think of one word to write down on the page, I play this song on repeat, and the words flow.

People need something/someone to inspire them in order to push them to greatness. That’s why young boys and girls watch endless hours of sports hoping to become as good as Kobe Bryant, Peyton Manning, Lindsey Vonn, or Serena Williams. That’s why people listen to music about overcoming the odds or people remembering their names (yes, that is from Fame). We all want something to believe in, and we need to see it play out for others so we can say to ourselves, “I can do that.” Now, I am never going to win Olympic gold (if you’ve seen me play sports you know why), but writing, well I’m pretty sure I can do that. And I thank Hollywood for giving me DVDs to pop into my TV at night to help me believe.