Tag Archive for 'Fictional Assistants'

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meet TV’s assistant of the year

Receptionist Pam Beesly of “The Office” was recently crowned “Employee of the Year” by Us Weekly. Well, more specifically, it was Pam’s portrayer, Jenna Fischer. She was one the honorees on Us’ “Hot Hollywood” list, along with American Idol Kris Allen (“Victor of the Year”), The Soup’s Joel McHale (“Comic of the Year”), and Leona Lewis (“Chanteuse of the Year”).

I love Pam, and Jenna Fischer seems pretty awesome too.

That said, does Us Weekly know there is a difference between actors and the characters they play on TV?

workplace harassment on ‘entourage’

Sometimes life really does imitate art…well, not that “Entourage” is art, but you get the idea. Just as his character Lloyd is mocked on the show by being called “The Gaysian,” his portrayer Rex Lee also gets shit from crew members while on set. Lee admitted to TMZ that he’s sometimes a target of jokes about his race and sexuality at work, and that it bothers him.

After the story broke, “Entourage” creator Rob Ellin responded that he was “horrified” to hear of Lee’s on-set harassment. He said that when the show resumes filming he’ll be giving everyone a lecture (sensitivity training class, perhaps?) and insisted that “[Harassment] is not something condoned or acceptable.”

I’m glad to hear that Ellin is laying down the law (even going so far as to say he’ll fire people who make homophobic comments), but did it really have to take this long? How many years has Lee been on the show? Is this a recent problem or something he’s just speaking out about now? Either way, I’m glad that Ellin seems to want to do the right thing.

conan’s supernatural assistants

Remember when Conan hired a zombie to be his personal assistant on The Tonight Show? Well, he’s keeping the bit going – and mocking Twilight in the process, which is always fun. Enter the brooding vampire, the hot werewolf, and … the sexy mummy?

lloyd gets a last name

I have to admit, I can’t really stand Entourage. I view it as Sex and the City for guys and am totally sick of listening to male friends of mine have inane conversations where they argue about who is the Vince in their circle and who is the Eric. However, I get sucked into watching it mostly for one character, the ever-beleaguered assistant, Lloyd (Rex Lee), and his banter with his evil boss, Ari (Jeremy Piven).

This season, Lloyd got tired of being Ari’s bitch and decided to strike out on his own as a talent agent. Ari, who a) thought Lloyd was the best assistant he ever had, and b) hates to be challenged/threatened in any way, obviously didn’t handle it well. Lloyd went after Johnny Drama, movie star Vince’s less cool brother, as his first client. Ari responded by also trying to woo Drama, even though he’d never expressed interest in Drama or his work before. Luckily for Lloyd, Drama realized that Lloyd actually cared about him as a client and a person, while Ari just wanted to stick it to Lloyd by stealing his client.

So, a mini triumph for Lloyd, but knowing this show it’s obvious Ari is going to try and sabotage Lloyd and make his life miserable. I look forward to seeing how the “Gaysian” does out on his own. In the meantime, though, an incredibly important thing happened – single-monikered Lloyd finally got a last name. (It’s Lee, the same as his portrayer’s.) This is sort of like when your email goes from being assistant@company.com to being yourname@company.com. It may seem like a small change, but it’s actually a huge leap for your self-esteem. Team Lloyd Lee!

lloyd’s night on the town

This weekend, the New York Times did its weekly “A Night Out With…” feature about Rex Lee, best known as Lloyd the long-suffering assistant on Entourage. The Times followed Lee and several friends as they went to the hugely popular restaurant Koi in Los Angeles. Some choice selections:

Seated at the head of a table decorated with an orchid and a bottle of low-sodium soy sauce, Mr. Lee played host to six friends, most of whom he worked with when he was an assistant to a commercial casting director. After dinner, everyone would walk to Mr. Lee’s nearby condominium to watch the latest prerecorded episode of “Project Runway.”

After four years of playing Lloyd on “Entourage,” the frazzled, gay Chinese-American assistant who suffers the homophobic and racist insults spit out by his manic boss, Ari Gold (Jeremy Piven), you might think Mr. Lee would be tired of melodrama. But that’s exactly what draws him to “Project Runway.”

What a cutie. Team Lloyd!

even vampires need assistants

Did you ever read R.L. Stine books when you were a kid? I did, and the trailer for the upcoming movie Cirque de Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant gave me a lot of Goosebumps flashbacks. While the premise is kind of flimsy – a kid who is bored with his life agrees to become an apprentice vampire – it looks like a lot of fun. John C. Reilly plays the vampire who teaches his young pupil how to suck blood properly, and Salma Hayek and 30 Rock’s Jane Kacmarek both appear as members of the titular “Cirque.” The movie comes out, obviously, just in time for Halloween.

the sta review: ‘post grad’

Last night I went to see the new Alexis Bledel movie Post Grad with a friend. The movie stars the former Gilmore Girl as Ryden, an overachiever who has planned out her entire life already. So far, she’s checked high school and college off her list of achievements, and the next item is landing an assistant job at “the most prestigious publishing company in Los Angeles” (I smothered a couple of laughs at that one). When the job goes to her college rival instead, Ryden has to deal with what happens when your big plans don’t work out the way you wanted.


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Continue reading ‘the sta review: ‘post grad’’

zac efron to play assistant?

Robert Rave’s “novel” Spin isn’t even on sale until tomorrow, but there are already talks of turning it into a feature film. The book, which Rave swears isn’t based on experiences working for his former boss Lizzie Grubman, seems to be on its way to becoming The Devil Wears Prada, 2.0. Unlike Prada, though, the book has a male protagonist, Taylor. He’s a perfect assistant lit cliche – young, wide-eyed, Midwestern, and with aspirations to make it big in New York City. Who could play the role? Some sources claim that High School Musical star Zac Efron is up for the part. This could be a smart move for the teen idol – after all, Prada helped its assistant portrayer Anne Hathaway become a star. It could also help him shed his squeaky clean image – Spin contains plenty of sex, drugs, and blackmail.

The thing I really care about, though, is who will play nightmare PR boss “Jennie.” Jennie is described in the book as being overtanned, coked-up, entitled, and abusive. Perhaps Maya Rudolph as Donatella Versace? Heather Locklear in Amanda Woodward mode? Or maybe this could be the perfect comeback role for Tara Reid…

advice from a favorite fake assistant

It’s certainly an odd movie to claim taught me something about the workplace, but Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead, the great ’90s movie starring Christina Applegate when she was still best known for being Kelly Bundy, actually gave me a really useful piece of work advice. When Applegate’s character, Sue Ellen, fakes a resume and gets a job as an assistant at a fashion company, her boss, Rose, teaches her an incredibly useful phrase: I’m right on top of that, Rose. Sue Ellen learns to use that phrase anytime it needs to look like she’s working on something or a higher-up wants to know how a project is going. Sue Ellen may not even know what the hell they’re asking about, but she sure as hell will claim to be “on top of it.”

While the movie is completely unrealistic, that notion of saying you’re doing something when you don’t have any plans to do so is a pretty common office phenomenon. At my first assistant job, I used “I’m right on top of that, [Evil Boss' Name],” all the time. My boss, who was in his 70s and had no idea that I was quoting a movie to him, would always seem satisfied with my answer.

This line is also incredibly useful with your parents, your neat freak roommate, your professor, or anyone else who is trying to make you behave like an adult when you don’t want to. Are you done with that term paper? I’m right on top of that, Professor Rose. Are you planning to come home for Christmas? I’m right on top of that, Mama Rose. See? It really is perfect. Thanks for that, Christina Applegate.

former assistant done good: betty suarez

Although Ugly Betty’s new season hasn’t started airing yet, it’s not too soon to congratulate the show’s titular heroine on her recent promotion from assistant to features editor at Mode magazine. STA has been following her journey from the start, and it’s going to be interesting to see how the show changes now that Betty is in a position to have an assistant instead of be one. (As previously reported, former Sopranos star Jamie-Lynn Sigler will join the cast as Betty’s replacement working for Daniel.)

And what goes along with Betty’s promotion? A long-awaited makeover, of course. Sources report that focus groups were shown pictures of actress America Ferrera in different outfits, including a Chanel power suit and a black cocktail dress, and asked to say which one they liked the best. I guess it’s good that Betty won’t be so ugly anymore, but I really hope she doesn’t lose her spunk and kind heart. You hear that, show? Don’t let her get promoted to be the boss from hell. Our girl knows better than that.