Well it does look like some really good news – the Writers Strike looks like it will end as we only wait on the WGA members’ vote that is expected to go through. Business in Hollywood has nearly come to a stop for the past 3 months as this strike has been going on – and now with it about to end I will look forward to seeing if that was one of the causes for the many I have contacted over the past 3 months and have gone un-responded – or if their non-response is just because they are perpetuating the Hollywood practice of ignoring & dismissing the authentic voice and representation of those with a disAbility! No more excuses! Talk business now that business has resumed in the industry or dismiss and hope I go away? I will NOT go away! This is what is suppose to be and WILL be!
UPDATE: Speaking of business here is an update to the best Win-Win for Abilities United and for James Cameron/LightStorm Entertainment and 20th Century Fox – I did call on Friday (Feb 8th) just as I said I would in the one page letter I faxed to LightStorm on Monday (Feb 4th). I did get a chance to speak to a staff member who said he never saw any of the letters I have been sending once a month the past few months! When I asked if there was an email address he would like me to send it to – he requested that I re-send through the fax and that he would make a special lookout for them.
He did sound genuine and I did resend the Feb and Jan letters. The Jan 8th letter was 5 pages long and as I mentioned to him in the cover letter that I addressed to him – the beginning of that letter presumed that the Dec letter was received and read but not to worry as the rest of the letter reiterated the background and the proposal of “Mutual Support” between us.
I have to admit that there is some expression in that Jan letter of my frustration at the industry that I also love, and I do hope that it is not taken the wrong way. I know that without getting a response from previous letters I have sent to Cameron that I also was a little blunt in some of the statements in that letter but never intended to make it threatening – ie: that if you don’t do this I will do this and you will be so sorry! Most of what I said could be read on the website page that I dedicated to the Hollywood climate on those of us with a disAbility, the issue of James Cameron and his new movie “Avatar” as well as throughout this blog. After all, it is as you all know – the truth. This would be the best solution for us both as I will give my full support to Cameron and “Avatar” even with the casting of an able bodied actor regardless of the circumstances that got him that job so long as I can honestly say that Cameron had no idea how deep this problem within the industry was until I brought it to his attention (after principal photography had begun & too late to recast the role) AND he helps us get the authentic voice and representation produced and preferably as the Executive Producer of “London Time.”
It is also the truth that if I cannot get some attention to the solution to these blatant problems soon, whether it is from James Cameron/LightStorm/Fox or from the industry as a whole – soon, then I will bring the attention to Hollywood. I will mobilize – like never before – the entertainment news media and disAbility rights advocates and groups along with all that are trying to work or dream of working in this business despite the incredible industry wide discrimination, stereotypes, and attitudes imposed on those of us with a disAbility. And possibly produce the documentary film that I have a blog post here on that will turn the cameras on Hollywood and name names to all of those whom I have tried to contact or been given a response to from their assistants and receptionists over the past couple of years in the details of my 12+ year journey to break the Hollywood stereotypes and discrimination of characters and people with a disAbility.
I concluded the fax cover letter with a request to read through the entire letter despite these possible deterrents to finishing – to visit the Abilities United website and then to bring it to James’ attention and get back to me as soon as possible since my needs to launch Abilities United to the next level with the production of “London Time” has gotten to a critically point. So we will see what happens and I will update all of you as soon as I hear something. Hopefully that “something” will not be the deafening silence that most of the industry likes to respond with when we speak of these issues of authentic voices and representations of those with a disAbility!
Abilities United 