Personally, I’m not holding out much hope at this point, but a girl can dream.

Meanwhile, Emma did the cutest shoot for Purina last month.  I booked it myself, and got my hand slapped for doing so by one of her 801 agents, but frankly I thought working with animals would be good for her–and fun!  It was a seasonal in-store display ad for retail stores.  She had to play with a bunch of dogs and cats under a Christmas tree.

I have to say, it seemed that it would be a lot easier than it was.

Emma worked with the most adorable cats and dogs (Diesel and Molly) who were extremely well-trained.  Of course, the trainers were on set throwing a treat their way every 5 seconds, but still, I was impressed. They had to maintain a scene for long lengths at a time.  I didn’t know who it was harder for, Emma or the animals! I walked away with a whole lot of respect for these on-set animal trainers.

I had actually taken quite a few shots from my iPhone and somehow they’ve disappeared. So, instead, here’s a picture of Emma doing Flamenco dancing at her end-of-summer performance with LA Ballet’s Summer Camp. She’s the skinny one in the maroon leotard.

Emma Flamenco-ing.

The movie is in pre-production in Canada, and I believe they thought they’d be able to cast someone in the Great White North for the part. Since they apparently could not, they’ve  picked a few girls to send a taped audition for their consideration.

We got the sides this weekend, and it’s a fairly meaty lead role with a good dose of drama.

I have to say, even though most of the summer Emma has been on a parent-imposed “auditioning hiatus” after spending five weeks at camp with Los Angeles Ballet, it’s been fairly action-packed.

While she was at camp, for example,  some key maneuverings occurred on the agency front. Her commercial and theatrical agents at Don Buchwald & Associates, Chrissy Eaden and Pamela Fisher, up and left for Abrams Artists–thankfully, taking Emma with them.

The scuttlebutt was that an agency called Paradigm poached the key members of Abrams Artists’ Youth Department a few months back.  Then, Buchwald merged with Fortitude which did not have the best rep among the youth thespian community–spurring the move by Chrissy and Pamela to Abrams (who had just lost their youth agents).

If your head is spinning, mine was too.  But the upshot is that Emma is now with Abrams Artists and we’re pretty excited about it.

This is the second big audition she’s had since making the switch. More on that later.

Emma’s getting an acting coach to go over her lines with her just prior to making the tape for Mr. Redford.  Jeff and I are already fighting  discussing who will accompany her on set. We should be so lucky.

Oh, Hubbell, please pick Emma!

We’re in Orlando right now, so we had to pass on the third Target gig that shoots early next week.

More when we return.

Essentially this means that they say: We need Emma on X date (without her having to attend an audition). And off she goes.

Let me back up and explain.  When Emma was on location for the first Target ad, the photographer took notice.  She was called back and subsequently booked in a second Target print ad that will appear sometime in July.  During that shoot, the photographer came out and raved about Emma, letting us know she was going to “go places.”  Naturally we were thrilled.

The photog then texted Emma’s agent saying how impressed she was with her and that she wanted to think of a “special shoot” she could have Emma participate in.

I was happy but all together not sure what it was that Emma had done to mesmerize such a practiced shooter. When we asked Emma, she said, “Well, they ask  me to imagine stuff and then act it out, and so I do.  And then they take my picture.”

Alrighty then.

I will definitely share the pics with you when they’re posted on Target. By the way, you’d imagine at this point, Emma might be set for college–or even just able to shop at Barney’s Kids moving forward.  But the reality is that the pay is relatively paltry.  I’m not complaining.  Just surprised.

Meanwhile, she booked a Purina ad for July that will appear in retail stores. Of the pet variety I’d imagine. There will be four cats and two dogs on set.

Furreal.

The movie is based on a very popular book trilogy by author Suzanne Collins–a post-apocalyptic “Survivor” meets “Lord of the Flies” meets “Gladiator” ish.

Casting for the film was still in stealth mode when we were sent her sides–they arrived watermarked to make sure we didn’t plan on sharing the script with the public at large;  there had been reports of a manuscript being leaked to the press.

We hadn’t yet heard of the books, so when all this hubbub arose about keeping her audition and her lines under wraps, we just sort of shrugged, and said, “Sure.”

Problem was, Emma was away at a science camp when we got the call.  And when I mean away, I mean somewhere in the mountains of Malibu studying insect populations among the flora and fauna.  Since we really had no idea how we would possibly be able to get her to the designated audition, we said, sorry, no can do on this one.

Apparently, that didn’t fly.

They wanted to see her so much, they scheduled a special audition time for the day she returned from the wild.  In fact she had two hours from the time she disembarked the bus to when she had to be front-and-center reading lines for the camera.

Actually, this is a good thing. You’ll see, if you read up on the books, the characters look as if they’ve had long-standing exposure to the elements. Thus, we made sure her hair remained the stringy mess it was when she re-entered civilization clutching a cricket.

Emma’s take on her audition was that she and the casting director clicked, and they even shared a good laugh after a prop became stuck in Emma’s chair mid-scene.

But naturally, we all know how this ends since Emma isn’t being heralded around Hollywood as the ingenue in the film. Alas, we can only find comfort in that the young star who was in fact cast, is years older than Emma.

Hollywood will just have to wait to get a glimpse of Emma’s wild side.

Also, I switched jobs. I’m working now for a public media company and it’s been a fast-paced adjustment.

Enough about me.  After all, you’re not here to read about my cast-toting adventures in public television. And I actually have news–good news in fact–on the starlet front.

Emma was called in for a Target ad not too long ago.  The audition was really crowded.  But she was the exact height that they wanted, so instead of zipping through the line of Ford models and leaving, they asked her to stay awhile and try on a few outfits.

Per usual, disappointment prevailed, and she was passed over.

A week later, however, we got a notice that Emma was on “immediate avail” for another Target ad. On Thursday we found out she booked it!   The shoot happened the next day at an ocean-front mansion in Santa Monica. It was beautiful. We tried to snap a few pics, but our camera was confiscated and the pictures were deleted! There was some sensitivity that the clothing line hadn’t been unveiled yet. Apparently.

We managed to keep a couple of her before she changed into the clothes for the shoot. See below.

Emma had a blast. She was catered to like a fashion diva and pampered like a princess.  She was ultimately paired with another boy her age, who had an impressive track record for a 10 year old model. He had a great attitude, which I really think has a lot to do with anyone’s success at that age.

At the end of the shoot, they both jumped into the pool fully clothed!

The ad comes out in late June and  will be in newspaper circulars as well as online. And to think, she even got paid.  Since I manage to spend half my paycheck at the store anyway on a monthly basis, I’m kind of figuring it’s a wash.

Stay tuned (I can say that now that I work in television) for more exploits in entertainment.   I promise to write soon.

Emma, pre-shoot for Target in her street clothes.

Friday, Emma’s agent notified us that she was under strong consideration, aka “on avail,” for a national JC Penney spot.  Of course we were pretty stoked about the possibility of her being a kid spokesperson for one of the most enduring department store brands in the U.S.

The days ticked by. Monday was the fitting. Saturday we were telling ourselves that she was still in the running until they notified her agent that the avail had been lifted. My husband rationalized that she likely hadn’t gotten the part as more time passed because they were simply checking if their first choice  was good to go on all fronts. I was more hopeful.  At one point over the weekend I looked up at the ceiling before going to sleep and murmured, “Please? Just let her get this one?”

But I’m not bitter.  I’m sullied. Practiced in this school of auditioning to know better than to put any value on this “on avail” charade.  Of course until she gets one.

Oh, I keep wanting to share Emma’s print commercial calling card with you.  Here are a couple of shots from it.

The cover of Emma's ZED card.

A picture from Emma's ZED card.

From what we understand, the company wanted to do something uber creative for its end of the year executives meeting. As a surprise, the CEO decided to shoot a commercial that depicted all of its executives as young kids talking about their accomplishments and vision for the company. The spot wouldn’t air on TV but it would definitely be a DIRECTV keepsake. We were excited!

Emma was cast as “Karen,” a DIRECTV Internet Technology executive who was of Greek descent. Isn’t it interesting how Emma can go from being almost cast as a young Reese Witherspoon to someone who’s Greek? She’s a chameleon!

When we got the wardrobe list, it asked us to bring all Emma’s office/professional attire. Uh, yeah. Should I throw in the heels as well? I mean aside from a cardigan (that has a rainbow peace sign on it), the child owns nothing that resembles professional garb.   Her manager told us that we shouldn’t panic and that they would provide the clothes for her at the fitting.

Sure enough, Emma looked like she was ready for Wall Street. Or El Segundo. The company’s HQ.

Emma’s lines were pretty complicated. She had to say things like:

“When I grow up I want to work with transactional websites. I want to make customers ridiculously happy.”

And…

“Our new loyalty program saved over xx thousand customers. That’s a lifetime value of over $xx million dollars. directv.com signed up thousands of new subs.” (Editor’s note: had to delete the actual numbers)

Here’s the kicker.  Emma nailed it in two takes!  We received the reel last week, and she was great!  Here are some pics from the set.

Ironically, the first one is for Sea World. The crazy thing is that we just won a trip to Sea World in Orlando on a game show (The Hub‘s Family Game Night). Already my husband and I are squabbling over who will get to take her to the shoot if she gets it. Ha.  That’s a big “IF” as we’ve all come to learn. Our house has been like the walking dead throughout December due to illness, so the possibility of drying out in the Florida sun would be a spectacular break from shuffling around the house coughing.

The other callback is for Password Journal. Emma knew what this was though I’d never heard of it. It’s a voice recognition diary type of thing. Talk about super sleuth.

In both cases they asked for a spunky, cute girl who could throw some attitude. Alas, Emma is great at shoveling snark at the tender age of 10.  We hope she lands one of them.  They both shoot on the same day!

Now wouldn’t that just be a high drama dilemma?

But alas, the tide finally turned and Emma booked her first commercial job. Hip, Hip Hooray! It’s an industrial spot for a very large tech company.  I can’t say who right now because, well, it’s a long story which I’ll explain in my next post, at which point I’ll also share pictures from the set.

Meanwhile, Emma and I have been really busy with Nutcracker performances.  We did seven shows in four days. Here’s a neat picture of her dancing the role of the Russian dolls taken from backstage (I played the mysterious Uncle Drosselmeyer).

Now hopefully we can get back to life as we know it. Without the cape and such.

Live on stage: Emma performing in the Nutcracker with Classical Ballet Academy