Douglas, one of my friends of 8 years, from Montreal, Canada, invited me to bring a couple friends to his cafe to try new recipes, new organic food and drinks. So I brought my film producer friend Ms. Li, and a Vancouver-based Canadian modern and contemporary dancer, Kevin, who is currently working at the British Columbia Pavilion in Beijing for the Canadian Olympic delegation.I met Kevin in Vancouver and bumped into him 4-5 times at the Vancouver Aquatic Center. It seemed to me that yesterday we were still walking on Beach Avenue in Vancouver and now we were walking in the CBD of Beijing. What a small world!
By connecting with each other, opportunities all came up. Ms. Li was looking for foreign cast (one white male in 40s, and 2 white males in 20s) for a Hollywood production shot in China--Mermaid Island, with the director coming to Beijing from L.A. next week. Kevin was very excited about the part, and hopefully Ms. Li was going to arrange for him to meet the director next week.
Then, impressed by the cafe owned by Douglas, Kevin would love to bring his co-workers to try the food at his cafe. Ms. Li planned to hold a French wine tasting party at his cafe, though.
After the lunch I went to the newly opened ancient street--Qian Men Avenue, to enjoy the renovated ancient architecture. It reminded me of London, England.
At night I was invited to a party at my big star friend Wang Ji's apartment. It was a huge duplex apartment in a very nice complex, very luxurious and spacious. Her master bathroom was even bigger than my master bedroom, needless to say she bought this apartment only for her daughter. She has quite a few apartments and houses both here in Beijing and Beverly Hills in L.A. I guess she must be doing really well. While most actors I know cannot make both ends meet, she has one contract after another. She just finished a 50 part TV series and was flying to another city for a movie the following day.
I was glad to meet her friend from L.A., Jimmie, Director of the Center of International Scholars of UCLA, who came to Beijing to watch the Olympics, especially basketball and track and field. He was a very interesting guy, born and raised in a slum in L.A., serving the US army in Germany during the Cold War, then going to law school at UCLA. He helped Wang Ji a lot when she was studying acting at UCLA during the 1980s, and now it was time to Wang Ji to pay back.
