January 27, 2007

•  WORKING GIRL

  So the first gig of ’07 goes to the littlest Shen in the household –  AVERY!

  Avery got her feet wet last night in a Natasha Bedingfield video for a single called, “I Wanna Have Your Babies” coming out in April. 

  Throughout the video, Natasha is seen checking out various good lookin’ guys and fantasizes about having their kid – and Avery is the product of Natasha fantasizing gettin’ it on with her Asian Gym Trainer.  It sounds way worse than it actually is — it’s just one of those catchy pop tunes done in good fun. 

  Avery did extremely well – she’s always been a mellow baby but we didn’t know how she’d react with 80 people around her barking orders and adjusting lights/cameras.  But she never freaked out once and was just interested in what everyone was doing.

  All she had to do was sit in a stroller but during playback (when the song is played on set for Natasha to sing along to), Avery started boppin’ her shoulders to the music!  And when the playback stopped, she kept saying, “More, more”.  (She’s photographed on the right in the wardrobe she’ll be wearing in the video.)   

  We were given 3 hours notice that her photo was chosen by the director and we were then off to the set (Her first gig was a straight offer!).  Having knowledge of a set helped immensely as I was able to make sure she was okay while still staying out of the way.  Ex: When the camera assistant yelled, “Camera Reload” – I knew it would be awhile before they could start shooting again and I immediately hopped into the shot to keep Avery company.  Since she was under 2 yrs old, they could only keep her on set for 4 1/2 hours — so we were able to get out of there fairly quickly – while the other unfortunate toddlers that were over 2 yrs old could be kept on set for 6 1/2 hours. 

  It’s been over a year now trying to get her working to utilize all the downtime I have when not auditioning/working — I figured, might as well make some easy dough for her college tuition by doing what I already know to help her, right?  

  But the best part after creating a Coogan Account for her(in CA and NY, 15% of the child’s money must be placed in a locked trust fund so parents can’t pull a Gary Coleman and rob their kid blind), is that she’ll receive a W2 this year.  Which means I can now open a ROTH IRA Account for her and have that sucker earn 63 years of tax-free, compounded interest!  Sigh… it’s a shame she didn’t get a gig when she was first born – so it could’ve been compounding for the full 65 years.  

  Chuckle of the Night:  At one point, a guy in a moustache came up to Avery and said, “Hey little girl!  I’ve got some nice toys for you to play with.”  I said to Kim, “He’s probably the Prop Master.”  To which Kim replied, “He’d BETTER be the Prop Master or he’s just some creepy guy!”  

  I can just picture that scenario unfolding a little something like this:

  Guy: Hey little girl!  I’ve got some nice toys for you to play with!

  Me: So you’re the Prop Master, huh?

  Guy: Nope.

  Me: … oh.

  Awkward Silence.         

   

  Meanwhile, Papa Shen’s still got some stuff goin’ on – a few of my episodes on ”THIEF” will be re-airing this Sunday on FX, Jan 28 at 9 & 10pm PST (or 12 &1am EST).  And the latest word on “HATCHET“‘s premiere is Sept 7th, 2007 –  here’s a recent interview I did about the film: UpComingHorrorMovies.com

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