MY MOVIE CAREER

Actually it's not much to write home about, as the old expression goes.

I was an extra in a couple of movies when I lived in Austin, Texas back in the early 1990's.

But it was in pretty high company.

The first (or second, I don't remember) was a film called "A Perfect World", which starred Kevin Costner, Clint Eastwood and Laura Dern.

My big/two-second appearance on the screen was
playing an aide to "the governor".

He was played by the late Dennis Letts.

There we are together.

In typical extra fashion, I'm the one with my mouth tightly shut.

Two other extras and I were playing aides who were just supposed to stand in the background as "the governor" walked across in front of us.

(In living rooms of families, people said . . . "here it comes, oops, there it was.")

In screen grabs from the BRD's television the other day the caption on the screen summed up my movie career.

For that second or two on screen I got a handshake from Eastwood, who was also directing the movie, a steak lunch, and $75.

Oh, and sitting across a picnic table from Eastwood I watched him snap Dern's garter when she put her leg up on a bench he was sitting on and hiked her skirt up.

Nowadays he'd probably be charged with sexual harassment for that bit of horseplay.

My other film experience was with Johnny Depp and Leonardo DiCaprio in "What's Eating Gilbert Grape".

I had a couple of close-up scenes with both actors but unfortunately they both ended up on the cutting room floor.

I can be seen, briefly, very briefly, far in the background in a supermarket scene.

DiCaprio, incidentally, got his first Academy Award nomination for playing the mentally handicapped younger brother in this strange film.

Once again I got a nice lunch and a small check.

I'm still waiting for that big call from Hollywood.

But it was fun and I recommend the experience to one and all.