Like a Greek Goddess in L.A.

I was approached by match.com for the 2007 advertising campaign casting call, which I attended, and as many castings that I do as a model, I put it out of my head once it was done, as many castings don’t result in actual bookings. Shortly before Thanksgiving, however, the call came that I had been chosen!

After signing the contract, I boarded the plane and was whisked off in a nice limousine back and forth and put up in the historic Roosevelt Hotel on Hollywood Boulevard, opposite the Chinese Theater. This hotel is known for having been the launching pad for Marilyn Monroe and other illustrious movie stars.

Somehow I lucked out and got assigned an amazing outfit for my shoot: one of the most glamorous ball gowns and matching shoes (after I trucked a major part of my own wardrobe out to Los Angeles for match.com’s consideration!). It was a champagne colored, strapless satin ball gown number with a matching bolero, and it was literally “poured” on me. After it was zipped up, I felt like a Greek goddess!

The print shoot took place in studios that were cavernous with at least a crew of 60 manning the multitude of cameras, huge balloon-like screens and backgrounds, microphones, huge mirrors, props and kilometers of wires twisting around the stage, making it perilous to walk there. A famous photographer, Peggy Sirota, was totally in charge of how she wanted us to perform. For the print ads, she coaxed out of me the expressions she was looking for. For the commercial, she had requested me to come up with my most outrageous story, crocodile watching on the Amazon River some years ago. I was also induced into singing scales, practicing as an opera singer would. A single spotlight was completely focused on me while the crew was shouting back and forth “0ne-two-three! Action!”. Over and over, I had to do the performance again and again until it came out right. And finally the producer/director came out with “it is a wrap.” In the background was a whole team of match.com people and executives watching intently on the monitors that the result came out to their satisfaction. However, at the end they were sublimely satisfied (at least they said so).

All Friday and Saturday were time off, so I used the time wisely to visit the beautiful and impressive J.Paul Getty Museum near Malibu Beach and also to visit a young family, clients of mine to whom I delivered one of my portraits of their little son.

It was a delightful and exciting experience which made me feel like a movie star for a short while. Possibly articles and many unexpected things can come out of this adventure, and I look forward to new adventures to develop down the road from this experience.

So far, I have already received at least 3-4 emails per day since the campaign started. I am going out on a lovely date tomorrow, which could turn out to be something very special.