You Assume People in Hollywood Self-Promote Everything and Don’t Have Souls, and You Would Be Wrong
If you have read any of my pieces you know I try to stay anonymous and that I have worked in the Entertainment business for about 30 years. I don’t give details about me. But to highlight something you would never know happened otherwise, (that is similar to 1000 other things you never knew happened) I’m going to break a rule or two.
True Story
About 3 weeks ago I received a call from a close friend asking if I had a connection to Rob Dyrdek. I didn’t.
Not only did I not, but by the Kevin Bacon “6-degree” scale, I was at best a 5. But it’s a small industry and I’m old, so I assumed if I have to I can get to anyone.
The reason he called was his business partner’s son was ill. Very ill, with very bad cancer. It was the 2nd week of December and they didn’t expect him to see 2022. He was only 21 years old.
This young man (we’ll call him “BLAINE”) had grown up watching and idolized Rob Dyrdek (of MTV and Skateboarding fame). With what was very short notice and a pressing time schedule, at Christmas (Entertainment shuts down, totally stops for two weeks every year) he wanted to see if there was a way to get to Rob and get him to do something for Blaine.
At best, I call around and find someone I know reps him and this is three phone calls. At worst, I’m begging people I don’t know, emailing people that don’t like me at an airport bar on their way home for the holidays.
There is a great organization called MAKE A WISH FOUNDATION (link at the bottom of the page, please give something, even small) and they do amazing work in situations like this. But Blaine was 21 and I think Make a Wish has a cut-off. I get it, you have to draw the line someplace. Also, losing a day by throwing this at them at Christmas seemed more time-consuming than helpful. I blame myself for not bringing it up initially, but I assumed reaching him wouldn’t be too tricky.
Come to find out, my Venn Diagram overlap with Mr. Dyrdek does not exist. Many phone calls and a week result in nada.
I assume anything I need to get done, will get done. Everything is possible, but once I was to the point of sending people blind emails off referrals from people who my contacts didn’t really know, I was becoming less optimistic.
To compound this, famous people get a lot of requests that are either outright lies or extreme misrepresentations of situations. With people who know me, this isn’t an issue, but once you get a few degrees of separation (and rightfully so) people may have some doubts about the validity of the story. So laying out to get someone who is with their family at Christmas to contact a complete stranger can be very difficult.
About 10 days in I was starting to feel like I was wrong and this just wasn’t going to happen.
Then I got a phone call from a close friend at a big agency who works about 80 hours a week, that he was going to email me with his contact at MTV. But Rob’s show wasn’t shooting right now. He didn’t represent Rob, the producers, the writers no one, but this was the best he could do.
When a show is in production you can account for talent 24/7. If studios could GPS chip talent they would. Think about it, a multimillion-dollar investment riding on someone’s shoulders, if that person is a minute late, they want a ‘heads-up’.
However, out of production, people go their separate ways. In fact, (probably in response to what it’s like during production) a lot of actors (hosts etc) that carry that burden most of the time will retreat for vacations to remote places specifically so they don’t have to be anything they don’t want to be or bothered.
And it was Christmas.
December 13th I emailed an explanation to the contacts I was introduced to at MTV and they got it. No promises, but they would try to track him down. Again, could have been in Bali or on the moon for all they knew. But they promised to try and that’s all I could ask.
December 15th..
Roughly 36 hours later, he sent a video. He made Blaine an uplifting video. Based on the timeline, as soon as he heard about it, he had to of stopped what he was doing and make a video for a very sick fan.
My friend and the boy’s father surprised him with the video. My buddy wanted to record the whole thing as so many people deserved to see the moment, but given Blaine’s condition, he decided against it.
It worked. His reaction to his idol doing this for him, (I was not there, but was told) filled a very somber house with badly needed happiness and positive energy.
I was going to list all the small and large things Rob could have done to delay, ignore or just not give a shit and let this go. I’ve seen those things with other celebrities, but for the most part, 9 out of 10 times, this is how most celebrities in similar situations handle an event like this.
Part of it is being humble and not sharing something private with the world out of respect. Not seeking a pat on the back like so many accuse celebrities of doing. Just give part of yourself to one of the people that helped you achieve stardom.
Giving a little back.
I wrote all of that to say two things:
Thank you to everyone involved in making this happen. YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE.
and
Rob Dyrdek is a great guy and has very quietly displayed a character not everyone possesses.
My grandfather used to say,
“They can take your house, your car, even your dog, but only you give your character away”.
Rob Dyrdek’s character is intact.
MAKE A WISH
https://wish.org/
Even something small leads to miracles.
