For Garrett, art imitates reporting life

Tommy Garrett, when he’s not back home in Buckingham County, spends a lot of his time in Los Angeles, where he has been — among other things — writing an entertainment column for the Canyon News in Beverly Hills.

Recently, however, Garrett was asked to use his reporting skills on the other side of the Hollywood lens.

Director and writer Henry Jaglom, who was working on his new film, “Queen of the Lot,” needed an actor who could play a reporter. The film’s star, Tanna Frederick, offered a suggestion.

“It was not something that I auditioned for,” Garrett said. “The director knew of my work. I had written some articles about an actress, Tanna Frederick, for Canyon News and she showed him.”

Garrett got the call.

“They had a part for a Hollywood journalist to interview Tanna’s character in the movie,” he said.

“The story about her character is that she moved from Iowa to Hollywood to become a big star, and she finds out she is as crazy as all the A-Listers there.”

After two DUIs, Garrett said, Maggie is wearing an ankle bracelet and is trying to revive her career.

“We had this interesting scene in which I compared her to Bette Davis, which the character loved. Then we start talking about her personal life and she tells me she is dating this famous movie star Dov Lambert.

“She is telling me she is getting married and they are going to have a baby and I get to explain to her that he is already married, and she says … Oh, she knows. She doesn’t care.

“I give her a reaction that they say is a mixture of Bette Davis and Don Rickles. It was fun.”

It was also in a beautiful location. No cardboard backdrops or wooden sets.

“Maggie can’t leave home,” Garrett said. “She is under house arrest for drunk driving, so everything comes to her.

“It was filmed in a beautiful Bel Air mansion overlooking the entire city of Los Angeles on one side and the San Fernando Valley on the other side. You were in the mood.”

It went off without a hitch.

“We didn’t rehearse,” he said. “We did it in one take and everyone on the set gave us a standing ovation. After it was over, the director said, ‘Tommy, who knew you could act?’ ”

Garrett had taken the advice of an old friend.

“I remembered the late Darlene Conley,” he said. “She was on ‘The Bold and the Beautiful’ for two decades. She did movies, too. She was the waitress

in ‘The Birds’ with

Tippi Hedren.

“I was on the set of ‘The Bold and the Beautiful’ in the late ’80s, and she said to me, ‘The problem with young actors is they use all their energy chit-chatting and having a good time before the scene and then when they get in the scene they are physically exhausted. Then when the director expects you to have emotions, they are drained.’

“That was in the back of my mind. I just went around, walked by the pool and looked at the view. Later I went in the makeup room and kept reading my lines and kept quiet.

“About three hours later I got called on set, I thought, ‘Oh, he’s been yelling at people all day and he is stopping people in the middle of their dialog. I was thinking, Oh, no this is going to be murder.

“I was stunned to do it in one take. I was really excited.”

He’s also eagerly awaiting to see the finished product. The film is scheduled to be released in late spring or early summer.

Stay tuned.