... AND, FOR THE BENEFIT OF MR. KITE

What a day, what a spectacle -- what a world!

Watching Eddie Izzard do his thing was an amazing lesson in "performance." Wow.

The day began for me with a nice LATE pick up of 7am. Halllefuckinglujah! I actually slept more than 3 hours!!

The teamster van arrived at 6:50 with our star (Evan) dead asleep in the back. I, however, was wide-awake and very excited to shoot our circus day on a giant farm in Katonah, NY. So far, we had only heard about the 50ft paper mache man, the peasant women with heads 5 x's the normal size, the human cows, the Blue Meanies, the pop up circus tent surrounded by torches, and, of course, Eddie Izzard.

The gang and I spent the first half of the day a mile from set where our "base camp" (i.e., trailers) was, while the above-mentioned madness was costumed, organized and rehearsed. This left plenty of time for more cast bonding - by now the 6 of us have gotten quite close, and quite silly. Flu (for 2 of us) and all, we rolled down hills, jammed out with blades of grass as horns (after a lesson from cast mate Joe, the blue-eyed blonde Brit who can do ANYTHING, who learned this from a local while shooting a film over in Africa--of course) Then, wearing off most of our 3 hours old make-up, we challenged each other in gymnastics. Joe won. He can walk on his hands for miles.

After all of this hard work, we broke for lunch and were taken on a "gator" (a large tractor-like mobile) deep into the woods and down what seemed like the yellow brick road, until we came upon THE SET just before the catering tents.

None of us could believe our eyes. This was definitely (and I quote our director) "a big-budget movie day." As most of you know, Julie Taymor is famous for her puppets and life-sized (in this case way-beyond life-sized) paper mache/cardboard characters. There were fields of "hands" the size of SUV's, dancers in cow costumes, (so real that we were ooohing and ahhhing over one particular calf who was so convincing until we saw his converse sneakers peaking out). and a 50ft man towering above it all. (Of course then came the jokes that finally someone in this film was taller than me.)

After lunch we were gatored back to base camp to be "retouched" as it was almost (finally) time to shoot.

Us girls got into ours skimpy "summer of love" outfits, accessorized with giant, down overcoats. It was NOT summer in Katonah.

Went back to set & briefly rehearsed our scene with Eddie, and then broke for dinner. My stomach was confused by the strange meal hours, so instead of dinner, Evan and I hit the sweets table and got busted (Again) shamelessly sticking our fingers in cake frosting, pie filling, and brownie icing (there are no calories if you don't have an actual piece right?) The same tough, salty, woman reminded me that others might like some of those deserts that we were making a disgusting mess of. In retrospect, it did look pretty revolting when we were done.

Then we sat with Eddie where I ratted Evan out for knowing his entire performance of "Dressed To Kill" verbatim. I kid you not, Verbatim. He was most impressed when she finally got the nerve to demonstrate by answering my bold question "Are you gay, Eddie or do you just dress in Drag for fun?" In Eddie’s voice (this girl can sound like anybody. It's really scary) and using Eddie's EXACT dialogue from "Dressed to Kill", she proceeded to explain to me how we was NOT a Drag Queen, but a Transvestite wanna-be-lesbian and how there are 3 categories of Transvestites and that J. Edgar Hoover was really just a freak pervert and so on. It was Hilarious. Eddie was most impressed. Eddie is brilliant and his take on U.S. AND foreign politics enmeshed with the history of the world, is not only an education, but also a fucking riot.

Finally we were all called to set. Time to shoot! It was 6pm and the sun was going down fast. Bruno Dubonelle, our DP (cameraman) was panicked (the sunset always seemed to have this affect on him). So there went the idea of pulling the great prank the gang and I had planned for our first take, which in this case would have certainly cost us a $70,000.00 shooting day (I forget where I got that number, but you get the idea). Another day. Hopefully the documentary crew that follows us everywhere will get it on film!

Eddie stood in front of the tent surrounded by Blue Meanies. (Yes, I said Blue Meanies). We were positioned up the hill about 100ft from him in the field of cows, giant hands, peasant creatures and a hundred other people holding 6-8' 3-dimensional cardboard chairs. (No, I have NO idea.)

We ran down the hill pretending (???) we were still "tripping", got to the tent, and feigned surprise and delight while Eddie performed "For the Benefit of Mr. Kite." We squealed and applauded until we heard CUT and I smelled my hair burning. I had gotten too close to the torch. A joke was made that my now-dyed-three-times hair, was almost red enough for the director, and that fortunately I have plenty of it to spare.

We got our take though. And called it a day.

I got home at Midnight. Showered and CRRRRRRAAAAAAASHED!

I had the strangest dreams last night.

Still dreaming..........

Oh, by the way, the film has been officially titled: "Across The Universe".

How Appropriate.