MOVIELINE, May/June, 2002
MOST PEOPLE CAN ONLY DREAM ABOUT ACTUALLY ROMANCING THE STARS WHO ROAM THEIR FANTASY LIVES. THEY DON’T KNOW HOW LUCKY THEY ARE. JOURNALIST ANNA DAVID CAME TO L.A. WITH THE ACCESS AND ASSETS NEEDED TO ATTRACT CELEBRITY DATES, BUT SHE QUICKLY LEARNED TO BE MORE CAREFUL WHAT SHE WISHED FOR.
When I was 12, I loved Tom Howell with a passion unbridled. I had seen The Outsiders a good 20 times, regularly fought with friends over who “discovered” him first and found myself many evenings in the grips of adolescent longing, clutching a picture of Tommy where he was lounging on a bed and wearing a Le Tigre shirt. (“Not his fault – the magazine probably made him wear it,” I told myself then, embarking on what would eventually become a semi-regular habit of finding any way to justify a man’s less appealing aspects).
The only part of the crush that worried my mom was the fact that I was certain that one day Tommy Howell and I would have a relationship. “When I was your age, I had a crush on Johnny Ray, who was deaf and would cry when he sang,” my mom would say. “But I didn’t really think I was ever going to go on a date with him.” I’m sure I looked her with teenage horror, shook my head and went back to seeing whether “Mrs. Anna Howell” looked better in black pen or blue.
Of course, I didn’t ever date Tom Howell and the crush did dissipate over time. But the fact is, if you live in Los Angeles and are even tangentially related to the entertainment business, you’re going to interact with Famous Men and some of them aren’t secretly gay or only interested in dating actresses.
But first I need to explain how dating is L.A. is unlike dating anywhere else in the world – and that’s before you factor in famous faces. A great percentage of Angelenos who mingle in bars and restaurants or at parties are looking for their “Big Break,” or at least a break, depending on whether they’re wannabes or actual agents trying to land a client, producers after a money source or writers with a script to sell. More often than not, romance – even just plain sex – is not the foremost thing on their minds. The atmosphere may seem festive but work is going on here. Even extremely successful guys are never really off the clock, because job security does not exist in Hollywood. And in the entertainment business, the lines between business and friendship, love, family, etc., that can get blurred anywhere don’t really exist to begin with. People seek to make “valuable contacts” in any room that has more bodies than their own in it. L.A. is probably the only city in the world where you can see a stunning woman being thoroughly ignored by a man more interested in setting a lunch meeting with an agent standing behind her. And let’s not forget that there isn’t just one gorgeous girl in the room, there are dozens – all size four, and all dressed to kill.
