Aw shucks...

Back in July, a French TV producer e-mailed me to see if I was willing to be interviewed for a documentary to be shown on the French/Euro TV channel Canal+ in May 2027, on the topic of "Why Joan Crawford Remains Relevant Even 50 Years After Her Death."

I readily agreed! 

I then had two choices: Either be interviewed in LA in July or NYC in October.  I chose NYC in October. (Aside from looking forward to talking about Joan for a TV program, I'd also lived in NYC from 2007 thru 2010, and was looking forward to seeing it again after 16 years.)

Alas, when the producer finally confirmed the October 9-10 interview dates earlier today, he also told me that his production company could not afford to pay for my airfare or hotel stay! 

Sigh.

I looked up round-trip airfare for Austin-NYC, and looked up low-level-but-decent NYC hotels. I would have been paying about $2000 for plane/hotel/Uber/etc over 3 or 4 days there.

Ya know----I'd love to be filmed talking about Joan Crawford for a Euro TV program that might be streamed later. But I also think that any reputable production company could afford to pay @ $2000 to fly in/house an interviewee. 

Only a couple of years ago, a local play director in San Francisco offered me a free ticket to his small Joan Crawford play. I flew out there (on my own dime) to see the play, because I hadn't been to San Francisco since my graduate-school days there in the mid-1990s and was looking forward to seeing the city again, and because I hadn't been ANYWHERE in years! It was a fun thing to do.

So I was thinking to myself about this current opportunity, once I knew that the producer didn't want to pay for it: OK, it's "only" $2000 or so... That's $2000 for a lifetime of memories and talking points: "When I Got Interviewed in NYC for a Joan Crawford Documentary"!  

But still... Any production company should be able to pay the basic airfare/hotel rooms for its interviewees. Being over the age of 40, I went with my logic.

So, alas, I won't be a part of this upcoming documentary on Joan. But I look forward to seeing it!