Inside Scoop on "Nod if You Understand"
The "Tina Movie" is being made by two Hollywood "A" listers: Joey McFarland and Dawn Bierschwal. Joey won an Academy Award for his production of "Wolf of Wall Street." Dawn's credentials are unknown to me, but she is every bit Joey's partner. Some of you may have met them at CC19, as they joined us at Von Ebert's on Friday and at V-23 on Saturday night. Dawn was really digging singing along with "DB, DB, DB Cooper where have you gone...." They also sat in on the conference on Saturday afternoon.
I've known Joey and Dawn from late 2018 or so when Joey first called me upon the advice of Galen Cook. Joey got wind of the Cooper story and wanted to know more and had first called Galen. Joey then called me and paid me 500 bucks to educate him on the facts of the case and share my contact list. He also promised me a 5K contract to be a consultant on his to-be-made Cooper movie, but that deal appears to have evaporated in Santa Anna winds. Such is life in Hollywood.
Ironically, the dynamic duo crossed my path inadvertently in September. Eric was first beginning his dig at T-Bar and was looking for volunteers. I raised my hand but then chickened-out due to my mysterious fatigue issues, which seems to be slowly resolving at last. Note: It's not cancer and not my heart. More along the lines of the endocrine system and serotonin and testosterone levels.
But when I called Eric to say I was gonna be a no-show, I did volunteer to meet him at the V-23 in the late afternoon. When he appeared, I was surprised not to see Rob Bertrand accompanying him since he was doing half of the digging, but Eric did show up with a cute and quite gregarious young woman named Monique Lefontaine. Monique's a lassie from New Orleans, and I only vaguely know how she ended up drinking beers with Eric and me at the V-23.
Nevertheless, Monique loves talking and she peppered me with questions about DBC, which led to questions about Tina and T-Bar, which led to an impassioned discussion about how we could get Tina to CC21. My point of view was that it was gonna take a woman to do the heavy lifting, as Tina has publicly expressed her reluctance to work with men. Monique rose to the occasion and volunteered to make contact with Tina.
Over the next week, Monique called me daily with hour-long updates on her strategies to connect with Tina. Eventually she texted her, and it seemed her efforts were successful, but in a bizarre fashion. Instead of getting a direct reply from Tina, Monique got a lengthy text from Dawn Bierschwal. Monique, in turn called me in a fluster, asking "who the hell is Dawn Bierschwal and why is she texting me?"
Upon closer examination of the text message from Dawn, we learned that Dawn was introducing herself as a "good friend" of Tina's, and was discouraging Monique to make any further outreach to Tina. Although Dawn said nothing about making a Cooper movie or owning the rights to Tina's "life story," that's when I first got the whiff that Tina and Joey were making something - that things had gotten to an advanced level.
Later, Monique seemed to drop her plans to talk with Tina, and then Hurricane Ida hit New Orleans. I haven't heard back from Monique since, except for an email to tell me she survived the storm.
That's what I know. But the Vortex blows particularity strong in Southern California, no?
