Well, dear readers, I am taking a break from watching a documentary series on Max entitled The Playboy Murders. Just two episodes in and it’s at least holding my interest. As some of you know, I had a one-year working relationship with Playboy as their “sex news reporter” on their cable program Playboy on the Air. My bits were all comedy stories and were fun to shoot. I was personally sought out by Mr. Hefner, who was a huge fan of The First Nudie Musical, which he showed repeatedly at the mansion. I was put on the “A” list for the weekly movie night parties and the big yearly parties. The first time I went, as soon as I walked through the front door, Hef saw me and came running over to me and said, “You know, you were my idea for the show, and I’m thrilled you’re doing it.” He was always very sweet to me like that from then on, always came over to me, thought the bits I was doing were really funny and not only that, all their full page ads for the show featured me sitting in a hot tub with some beautiful gals in the buff. I was, of course, sitting in the hot tub fully clothed in a three-piece suit. I went to the mansion every Friday night for a movie, food, and while I never took part in the infamous grotto, I did hang out in the game room playing Frogger. Yeah, I know. I never saw any of the dark side or the weird side of stuff that came to light years later. Maybe that all began years later, who knows? All I know is, I loved the Friday night things and the two huge parties he threw were amazing, one in summer and one near Christmas. I eventually quit the show because I could not stand the idiot who came on board after five or six episodes to produce my segments. Could not STAND him. I think his name was Eytan Keller, although he doesn’t list our show on the imdb, probably because he had so little to do with it. I remember being pitched to do another reality-type show and was told he was working on it – I turned it down. Some people just rub you the wrong way. I did write Hef a long, very sweet note about why I was quitting. I think he was upset with me that I did and I was sorry about that. Of course, I was no longer on the “A” list, although I did go to one last party, one of the summer pajama parties – someone invited me or somehow I got an invite. Hef did say hello and it was cordial, but not like before. To button the story, when we released The First Nudie Musical on DVD back in 2002, I think, through Image Entertainment, I walked into Dave’s Video in Studio City to see if they’d gotten it in. Not only had they, they’d end capped it with a really nice display. I was friendly with all the employees. Dave was there and he came right up to me and said, “You’ll never guess who called as soon as we opened and ordered your movie.” Without even giving it a thought, I said, “Hef?” Bingo. So, I wrote Hef a nice note telling him that story, saying I missed the mansion, and hoped he was doing well. A few days later, I got a very sweet note back from him. I have to find it – it’s in some box or other. It’s really time for me to organize all these incredible letters and notes I have from people so that they’re all in one place. It’ll be a job, but an important one.
Yesterday was an interesting day. I got about seven hours of sleep, arising at ten-thirty. I answered e-mails, then decided to see if I could find this girl who’d been in Prime Suspect when she was eight. I now had her name from the call sheet – Kristine Reimetz. Not only could I not find anything with that name, I could not find a single person anywhere in the world with the last name of Reimetz. I began to think that maybe the name had been spelled wrong on the call sheet. I enlisted the aid of dear reader ChasSmith. He used Ancestry.com and found a Christine Reimnitz and a Kristine Reimnitz, both of whom seemed to be the same girl – he’d found some yearbook photos of her. Then he found a listing for her as Kristeen Reimnitz, birth year 1980, so I knew it had to be her. I searched Facebook immediately and found her. Her last post, one of very few, was in 2022. But she’d put her job on the page – set painter for films and member of IATSE. I wasn’t stopping there – I never stop, even if it takes years. So, I called the local IATSE number and asked if they could confirm she was still a member. She was. I told the really nice lady that I’d directed her in a film when she was eight and that I’d love to connect with her, as I’d just finished a book about my directing career. She said that she’d have to check whether they could give out her information – she put me on hold for a minute, then came back and said the fellow who makes that decision was in a meeting. I told her I didn’t need her information – that if they’d just call or text her and see if we had the right girl and if we did just give her my information. The woman said she could do that right away.
Five minutes later, the phone rang, and it was Kristeen, who confirmed she was indeed the girl and she proceeded to describe the scene to me exactly the way I describe it in the book. She’s forty-three now, loves what she does, and her parents, who I remember really liking, are still alive. I remember driving out to Newbury Park where they lived for either Thanksgiving or Christmas. I brought her a present of some sort and hung out for a while. We had a delightful conversation and she asked if she could get a copy of the book. I told her as soon as I got copies, I’d text her and we could meet up. It was rather amazing.
After that, I saw that Marco’s Pizza was doing one of their 20% off deals, so I ordered the small “everything” pizza – pepperoni, sausage, green bell peppers, and onions. That arrived very quickly, and I ate it all up – excellent, as always. After that, I put in the correct spelling of Kristeen’s name into the book and then did a note (the book has tons of notes throughout the text) about finding her and the phone call. I had some telephonic conversations, one of which was confirming a lunch on Saturday with the one and only genuine original Richard Sherman. Then I watched the two episodes and here we are.
Today, I’ll be up by eleven at the latest, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I’ll shave and shower, and then I have a lunch with an old friend from the cast of Together Again. It will be fun after all these thirty-something years. I’ll go to the mail place after that, then come home and at some point, watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow is lunch with Richard Sherman, Sunday is a ME day, and then next week is very busy and hopefully finally getting the book to the designer. It’s frustrating to have this photo thing taking this long. I wrote an e-mail about it, so hopefully I’ll have it in a day or two.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by eleven at the latest, do whatever needs doing, shave and shower, have a lunch, go to the mail place, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday – what is currently in your CD player and your DVD/Blu and Ray/streaming player? I’ll start – I have no idea. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, always happy to tell the Playboy story and the story of finding Kristeen.