Nurse blasts managers of Motion Picture Home

Nurse blasts managers of Motion Picture Home

The charity that operates the Woodland Hills facility known as the Motion Picture Home can't seem to quell the fallout from its decision to shut down the 50-year-old nursing home and hospital.

The latest evidence of that emerged Friday when a nurse at the home publicly took its administrators to task for their handling of the planned relocation of some 100 residents who are being forced to move out.

Representatives of the Motion Picture & Television Fund have said they could no longer afford to continue operating the nursing home and hospital, citing skyrocketing costs, and have vowed to help residents find comparable care at other facilities.

But, Lisa Johnson, a licensed vocational nurse at the home, openly challenged such claims in an open letter to the fund's employees. "A number of the residents and their families are feeling immense pressure to find new facilities," Johnson wrote. "They don't feel supported; they feel pressure."

As an example, Johnson cited an incident last month in which a resident allegedly yelled at a social worker to get out of her room. The social worker had entered her room, armed with various pamphlets on new facilities, to discuss her relocation, just after the resident had just learned that her husband -- also a resident at the home -- was dying, "The staff heard the resident screaming at the social worker to get out of her room, that her priority was her dying husband, not on the relocation process," Johnson wrote.

Some residents are refusing to leave, while others have complained that there is a shortage of available beds at quality nursing homes. Johnson echoed that concern in her letter: "I feel like I'm lying to them when I tell them whatever facility they will go to will live up to the high standards that we are used to here at the MPTF."

To be sure, Johnson has ample reason to be angry at her employer. She is among about 290 workers who will lose their jobs as a result of the closure later this year. The workers have complained that they've been kept in the dark about when they will be terminated. Fund officials said employees would be given 60 days' notice, and that that charity will provide severance pay and hold a job fair, but they have not specified when actual layoffs will occur.

Johnson's letter came in response to a memo that fund president, Dr. David Tillman, delivered to staff on Thursday which stated that the fund had so far helped 11 residents "successfully relocate to other facilities" and has assigned "transition teams" to assist more than 30 residents "who are actively looking."

"We are committed to maintaining a continued presence in the lives of the residents and participating in their care for the rest of their lives,'' the memo stated.

-- Richard Verrier

'Battlestar Galactica's' Michael Taylor talks about 'Islanded in a Stream of Stars'

Below is an interview with Michael Taylor, the writer of Friday's "Battlestar Galactica" episode, "Islanded in a Stream of Stars."

Typically the writer of a "Battlestar" episode goes to the show's set when that episode is filmed, however, at the time, Taylor was busy with "Virtuality," a Fox pilot he co-wrote with "Battlestar's" Ron Moore. Michael Angeli, another "Battlestar" writer, went to the set in Taylor's place. So the interview below contains some thoughts from Angeli as well.

Read on to learn how, in my review, I got one fact about "Islanded" spectacularly wrong (in "Islanded," Adama was not reading from "Searider Falcon," as I thought he was. He was reading from another Colonial novel. Doh!). Read on to learn how Angeli met some of his biggest non-fans from Television Without Pity, what was cut from the episode and what Adama may have meant when he talked about sending the Galactica off "in style."

Questions are in bold, answers are in regular type.

What did Edward James Olmos bring to this episode as a director? I think we may have talked about this once before, in a previous interview -- I seem to recall you saying that he has an "instinctive" style.

Taylor: Well, that's probably as good a word as any.  As you might expect, Eddie has a great rapport with the actors, and a directing style that comes very much from the gut.  He's able to probe beneath the surface of any given scene and tap into the raw welter of emotions undergirding it; it's like he's constantly pushing to find some deeper inchoate something that a sieve of words alone can't trap. 

A case in point might be the relatively brief scene between Helo and Athena in the teaser.  There was more dialogue in this scene (some of which may well be seen in Eddy's extended director's cut, which I understand will be on the Season 4.5 DVD), but Eddie cut it down to this crucial moment -- a moment, moreover, that was less written than precipitated by the scripted scene. 

I talked to Grace Park last night at after a screening we had at Universal, and she told me this was the fruit of a second take -- after a first take that had already been pretty devastating.  This one left her so spun around she barely knew what had happened.  It's the kind of moment that, as a writer, is both exhilarating and humbling, in that you realize your best stuff was merely a springboard for the actors.  And it's the kind of moment that Eddie has routinely been able elicit from this cast.

Angeli: Speaking of rapport with the actors, Eddie’s kinship wasn’t just for the regulars. There’s a scene in which about two dozen extras pose as crew members who are unloading supplies for the fill-the-cracks-with-crazy-glue operation. We had a little down time for some lighting adjustments and I watched Eddie mingle with the extras and show them how to make it look as though you’re lifting something heavy â€" because the burlap sacks, storage boxes, crates, etc. were really empty. And as he gave them pointers, he spoke directly to each one and you could see what a difference it made in their willingness to embrace who they were; it made them feel valuable â€" which reveals one other invaluable quality Eddie brings with him:  a true, abiding love for the show. 

That’s not just Adama mud-wrestling in the paint with his sense of loss.  That’s Eddie realizing that all of the excitement, the thrill, the rain, the few gorgeous days of Vancouver sun, the hard work, the good battles, the friendships, the sublime routines, the character he inhabited for almost six years were coming to an end.  For that scene Eddie just kept the camera rolling â€" no takes, until he was spent.  There’s been some discussion about Adama already having his meltdown when he discovers that Tigh’s a Cylon. But the nature of these two scenes couldn’t be more different â€" and both are equally valid.

There were some lovely callbacks to "Sine Qua Non" and "Unfinished Business" in this episode. Were those things you consciously hoped to work in before you sat down to work on the script, or did they just work their way in organically, if you will?

Taylor: I did not set out with any conscious plan, but I think that joint remained pressed between the pages of my subconscious, like Laura's between the pages of her book.  And since I believe endings naturally tend to make you reflect back on beginnings, and given that my own beginning on this show was "Unfinished Business," I suspect my mind just naturally drifted back there given the nature of this scene.  As I imagine Laura's would.

Is there a lot of material that had to be cut from the episode we saw? If so, what was it about?

Taylor: Yes, there was probably a good deal of material that had to be cut.  I say "probably" because it's a long time since I wrote the script, and I am too lazy to revisit it now.  I know that there were scenes, or at least one scene, of Tryol in the brig, and I think my sense there was that he had confessed and put himself in there out of guilt. 

And there was plenty of other stuff left on the proverbial floor -- scenes that were cut, or just saved down -- as is often the case with these overstuffed episodes, and especially mine, which are stuffed to the point where scenes and characters are always drifting out the seams, like that Six from the rupture in Galactica's hull.

In the end, though, I would say that for the most part episodes (mine, anyway) are better for what by necessity is cut.  Though here, at least, there will be a chance to check out what some of those missing bits may have added when Eddie's extended cut comes out on the DVD.

EJO got a great performance out of the child who played Hera, which I'd imagine was difficult, given that she had to cry and be upset in some scenes. How'd he do that?

Taylor: Here, I defer to Mr. Angeli.  How'd he do it, Mike?  By dangling the carrot of a cupcake or wielding the stick of a morphine injection?  Or, as I suspect, by making the girl a prisoner of his dazzling charisma?

Angeli: Eddie had the benefit of a new actress playing Hera.  And if I’m not mistaken, the little girl playing her is about 16 months older than the original Hera, who, as adorable as she was seemed to be channeling Betty Davis in “Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte.”

I wondered what Adama meant when he told Tigh that they would send the Galactica off "in style."

Taylor: Well, I suspect he meant with appropriate pomp and circumstance suitable to the "best ship in the fleet."  But then again "style" in Galactica terms usually involves more than empty fireworks and grandiloquent gestures.  So I guess we'll see, hmm?

Compared to other "Galactica" scripts you've written, was this one harder or easier to write?

Taylor: Oddly, this one was fairly easy to write.  Or at least "relatively" easy.  As I recall, Ron's notes on my first draft weren't that extensive, and we essentially ended up shooting that draft with various revisions.  It may be that having arrived at this point in the series, there was a sense of inevitability about some of these penultimate encounters between our characters.  After everything they've been through, they all seem to feel the need to close the circle, and resolution may ultimately be a neater process than the messy business of traveling that circle in the first place. 

Then again, what's past is merely prologue, to paraphrase some other dude, and part of my role here was to prepare the baton for Ron to carry across the finish line.  Which may've made my job a little easier (and his that much harder).  Sorry if I'm being too, ahem, elliptical.

Angeli: Taylor’s not being elliptical, he’s being modest.  The story document for this episode must’ve changed significantly at least three times. After all, this episode was the threshold.  By nature, it involved getting the various pieces for the finale in play â€" which in large part, included the collective state-of-mind of our main characters â€" which usually means less space porn [i.e. space battles,etc.] 

At one point the big disaster with the space-flushed Six occurred in the middle of the story. Mike recognized that he needed to start the story hot and moved it, with great success, to the teaser.  Also, Mike would come up with something great and we’d either pull it back into the previous episode or bump it into the finale. It was tough to draw a bead on the window of episode 20, which meant a lot more re-structuring, re-thinking, and acceptance. Taylor did a lot of surfing during the creation of this episode just to get his mind right, Luke.  


It seemed to me that the episode revolved around the idea of acceptance -- acceptance of reality and acceptance about what really matters. What are your thoughts on that?

Taylor: Acceptance can suck.

But, then again, I guess it does have its upside.  A certain weight is lifted and you are free to act in new ways, make bold moves, arrive at startling epiphanies.  Or so, perhaps, we shall see.  (Boy, am I having fun being tantalizing -- or at least what passes for tantalizing to my little mind.)

Angeli: When Stands With A Fist Mike says acceptance can suck he speaks without forked tongue.  I don’t think I’ve ever known a writer as meticulous and anal as Mr. T.  The adjunct to that is control.  I don’t think anybody fought a greater war of attrition to hang on to material which he felt worked and worked well (and often, he was right) than Mike T. 

Re: ideas, dialogue, William Goldman said you’re supposed to be able to kill your own babies. What Taylor does is stall until they grow up.  Ron would laugh at the lengths Taylor would go in order to hang on to something. So, imagine how the poor guy felt -- shuffling between L.A., where he was doing notes on "Virtuality," and shuttling to Florida to address the declining health of his father, who subsequently passed away in September, `08 -- instead of being up in Vancouver and working on his last show? 

I greatly enjoyed hearing more from Searider Falcon. Do you have a desire to find a venue in which you could write more from that Colonial novel?

Taylor: Well, I suppose it could well be a book dating back to the time of "Caprica," in which case there might be a chance to hear more of that story as the new series unfolds.  Then again, I don't think Adama was, in fact, reading from Searider Falcon, which was introduced by Jane Espenson, and struck me as more of a Robinson Crusoe-like tale. 

Groan -- okay, you're gonna force me here to actually look at the damn script... arghh, gotta find it on my hard drive here... click on the icon... skim the pages -- all way too much work for a Saturday afternoon.  But yup, looks like I intended Adama to be reading to her from a pulp paperback, and probably a different one than "Love and Bullets," the pulp he read to her from in "The Ties That Bind."

Did the filming of this episode present any unexpected difficulties? Any particular challenges on the set? Any stories you care to share about the making of "Islanded"?

Taylor: Here again I defer to Mr. Angeli, who very kindly offered to be on set while I was off getting high on network pilot fumes (always a risky proposition, I can tell you now).

Angeli: One really tough sequence to nail visually was Baltar’s shaving scene in the head.  Eddie wanted Head Six to shave Baltar as he bantered with Kara, nestled on the toilet.  We spent a considerable amount of time trying to make it look as though Six was there, but that you couldn’t see her reflection in Baltar’s mirror.  Eventually Eddie found the solution in having Baltar shave himself and positioned Head Six at an oblique angle to the mirrors.  It was a phenomenal piece of camera work and direction. 

As for myself, I felt I owed Mike a phone call on anything we were changing and at the end of the day, all the little things added up.  But it worked out â€" mainly because Mike had the balls to trust his better self. 

The other monkey wrench originated from Ron’s better self.  He and his terrific wife/best friend, Terry decided to reward a woman who had helped raise money during the writers’ strike by giving her a tour of our sets in Vancouver.  She could bring her husband, her son, and a work-related friend with her.  Ron intended to give them the tour but got stuck on the "Caprica" set and asked me to fill in. 

We had them sign confidentiality statements and as they were doing so, one of our employees overheard the woman and her friend stressing about me, hoping I wouldn’t recognize them as two writers from Television Without Pity who had slammed me as a misogynist hack and a creep who lives out his sex fantasies through the characters (P.S., who doesn’t?). I wanted to say something but they looked so thrilled and grateful to be there and I didn’t want to spoil it for her husband and son so I bit my tongue. Hard.

As it turned out, they were a delight â€" even though the first thing they wanted to see was one of our dumpsters. Things got really sticky when we got to the set.  Eddie was in the middle of shooting the scene where Ellen talks to Tigh and it’s clear that she’s the fifth Cylon. 

Out of the corner of my eye I could see the woman and her friend trading these looks of complete shock.  To their credit, they not only kept Ellen’s identity a secret for over nine months, but they also kept their promise keep to their visit a secret until the finale aired â€"which had to be harder than the Ellen thing. Best of all, they sent me these really touching thank-you cards, then continued to hammer me on Television Without Pity. 

I thought I saw Angeli in the hangar scene, but perhaps I was projecting.

Taylor: You were not projecting.  Not even hallucinating, which is more likely, given that you're probably not a Cylon.  Mr. Angeli was indeed there, in costume, as a member of Baltar's retinue.  You can ask him if joining the cult, however briefly, required any exchange of, um, "favors" with the illustrious Gaius.

Angeli: I had a speaking role, which, alas, didn’t make the final cut.  At one point during my sequence, Steve McNutt, our DP yelled cut and singled me out for chewing gum, which the human race stopped doing just before the first Cylon War.

If you have any other thoughts to add, or if you'd rather write about other things as regards "Islanded," please feel free...

Angeli: I landed in a stream of good times, which will be passionately missed for a long time.

Taylor: I have no thoughts.  Never really did.  It's all just a remarkable illusion, made possible by the fact that for a brief happy time I was a bit of creative flotsam that was lifted high by the great wave that was "Battlestar."  And now that I am about to have my brains dashed out on the shore with the rest of my more illustrious fellow writers, cast and crew, I am going to take a last moment to enjoy the view.

So in lieu of coherent thoughts, I leave you with this fanboy mental image of myself, squeezed into a Viper seat for all eternity...

"Taylor, weapons free, going in hot.  I am ready to engage.

Over, and out..."

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