Ashley Jensen (third from left) and fellow Ugly Betty castmembers on the picket line in LA. Photograph: Reed Saxon/AP
My neighbour has erected a giant inflatable turkey on her balcony. It must be Thanksgiving. Either that or she's trying to ward off the squirrels. The eight foot high turkey even has a light inside so you can see the bird in all it's glory at night. Scary.
As far as I can tell Thanksgiving is basically our Christmas Day. The universal plan is to watch TV (football seems to be the main event), eat, drink and then eat some more. Everyone is "super-excited", as they say here. Of course, there's a big commercial element too; there are hundreds of ads on TV right now showing people eating turkey and then randomly buying a Chevy.
I'm delighted to have received two dinner invites and have to find rhubarb crumbles to take to both. The pressure is immense, especially as my day will now involve a mad dash across LA to catch the second sitting. But if we're eating turkey and watching TV, what do we do on Christmas Day? And how am I going to cope without Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the Morecambe and Wise Christmas Special?
Actually, unless I can find someone with HBO, the special I'll definitely be missing this year is Extras. I met Ashley Jensen, who plays Maggie, in Hollywood this week. She's been out on the picket line supporting the WGA strike alongside her Ugly Betty cast-mates. Her take is that nothing will be resolved before Christmas. Their show will have only 13 episodes out of 23 in the can when they break in two weeks' time. However, she's all for SAG's more famous faces joining the picket line. 'The average person watching the news can't do anything about it but they'll be more aware if they see the cast of Ugly Betty or Grey's Anatomy standing there going "Look, there won't be any more of our shows unless this gets sorted out"', she told me.
Crikey, that's virtually reportage. Back to the blog.
This week has also seen me sort out my health insurance which is an odd concept when you've grown up with the NHS. If I ever get stuck up a mountain with a broken leg I'm covered if I need to be 'coptered to the nearest hospital. It sounds so exciting it's almost worth arranging a hiking trip to snow-capped Big Bear just to see if I can slip down a handy ravine.
Thrillingly, the Maconie's List website has finally gone live. You can see a trailer for the movie at www.maconieslist.com. The website is pretty basic but we'll get round to making it look fancy in due course, so a big shout out to Morgan who made it happen. He's the 15-year-old son of the film's 2nd AD Celeste, and probably had better things to do than be coerced into helping me out.
And finally, I caved this week and made a trip to Ye Olde King's Head in Santa Monica for a raid on their English grocery section. After ten months I can exclusively reveal that the one thing I paid five good dollars for was Prince's sardine and tomato paste. Not the diminutive singer. Of all the things to miss, it was paste for my toast. I'm ashamed that it couldn't be something more exciting like Pataks curry sauce or chunky Kit-Kats.
If only they'd sold rhubarb crumble, I would really have given thanks.
