How do I feel?

SUUUUUUPPPPPERRRRR.....

I've officially declared a stop on all whining about character defamation from certain lying Germans.

So no more talk about that.

Now - the offical complaining about how much there is to do before the shoot can begin. Much more fun and useful.

We officially start shooting in one week.

I found out last night - that through the weekend - the contract is still not finished or signed. The last round of updates completely bypassed me and now they think they are finally getting close.

Amazing. Still NOT DONE... but it's all good.

Today I meet with the "rising star" fashion photographer who is going to be doing the stills on the set. He seems cool - but all I've seen from his portfolio is really really racy pictures of near naked men. I'm sure he is just as good at taking really racy pictures of near naked women - so we shall see.

We also meet with the make-up stylist today. This guy is also a minor celebrity here as he hosts his own show and seems to be pretty cool.

Bill and I have a lot of work to do on getting the rest of the stuff we need to figure out for each scene to get that done as well.

We went out last night for a really nice dinner with the head of the Ad Council here for CCTV - the biggest network in China. He's a really cool guy - and the point of it was to slip him our script and see what he likes and doesn't like so we can change it before we shoot.

My wife and Bill came with me as well. As we were literally 100 feet from arriving at the restuarant - my wife open the door to the car - into traffic - and crossed three other lanes to get to the shoulder where she proceeded to throw up pea soup all over the side of the road.

She spent all day Saturday in bed - feeling awful - and felt better yesterday morning. We went to the Art Market where she bought gifts for all her friends - but started to feel a bit worse after she ate some pea soup for lunch.

We walked to the restuarant - and she immediately went into the bathroom. I don't think she puked anymore - but wasn't doing so well. She was embarrassed and hates the smell and taste of puke and didn't want to come out of the bathroom. I finally went in to calm her down.

The bathroom attendant was talking to her comfortingly in Chinese - and my wife was crying in English - and I talked them both down a bit when a lady came to the door. She goes to me - You know. This is the ladies bathrooom. I said I know - my wife is here and shes sick. Don't yell at me. She said - I'm not yelling at you. I'm just telling you. Thanks, lady.

I finally got her out of the bathroom and upstairs where we had a really nice time. She was very depressed because we had some really great food - but she couldn't have any. Luckily she had no more big outbursts - and actually felt better getting that stuff out of her stomach.

While we were eating, we found out that Gong Li - the most famous actress in China - the one from Miami Vice - was also eating upstairs in a room next to us. When I told the waitress I was a very famous director and it would be a shame for Gong Li not to meet me -

She laughed.

Watched two movies this weekend:

The Host - Korean horror movie about a monster that lives in the river. Silly silly silly. It's just opening in the States - and Entertainment Weekly gave it an A-. I enjoyed it - but not near that much. It's cheesy and silly and strange. More like watching a car wreck with clowns that anything else.

Holiday - what is the deal with this film. God Awful if you ask me. I already hate any film where people walk around talking to themselves - and this film had it in spades. Non-stop talking to explain what they are doing to the audience. So stinking silly. And it had Cameron Diaz singing with the Killers - horrible. And Kate Winslet - who I normally think can do no wrong - playing air guitar with a pillow. Even my wife - who normally likes all things rom com - could barely get through her bowl of pea soup.

And we know where that lead.

Off to make the donuts. While treading upriver in a stream of poisonous snakes.

For those who like such things:

HERE

David sent me this link to explain how to traverse the sticky world of office politics and emails.