Celebrities who've met ME! Meet Luke Ryan, Vice President at MGM

I met Luke Ryan in 2008 at the Willamette Writers Conference. This year we ran into each other at the same conference and reminisced about that magical moment when our paths first crossed....

Mr. Ryan exited the agent pitch area and ambled straight toward me. I manned the 'please leave your comments here' volunteer post. I started a friendly conversation, how's it going, what do you do. He said he did film. I said...

"Oh-oh-oh! Are you looking for a project with an Asian man married to a Caucasian woman?!"

He gazed off into the distance giving proper thought to contemplating my query. He re-focused, took in my expectant face, looked me solidly in the eye, and uttered, "No."

"Honesty. That I like." I said, and smiled sheepishly. Wanting to finish on a more positive note, I asked, "Where are you from?"

He broke a smile and murmured the sweet word, "Hollywood."

"The only person I know in Hollywood is Ed Schofield," I chattered. "He did some work for Spielberg."

"I've heard of him," he mused.

"Really, wow, that makes me feel good," I responded.

He gave me a sideways glance then laughed. Yeah, there's more than one idiot at writers' conferences.

The next day he was the luncheon speaker. The emcee announced him as a Vice President at MGM, with much heralded experience including executive producer credits of Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, a movie that actually starred an Asian, Korean actor John Cho.

I've thought about watching the movie Ryan produced, but I can't get excited about it. I think our tastes run in opposite direction, avoiding odd people for him, awkward moments for me.

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This year I attended one of Luke Ryan's classes. He's a kickass, entertaining teacher and extremely generous with his time with the conference and writers.

Here's a shout out to Luke Ryan who shared the main points of writing a detective film and a thriller and as soon as I find my notes I'll share them on the blog.

In the meantime, wishing you much success! Oh, and besides that animation stuff for Spielberg, Schofield also had a small part in a Gary Shandling movie. Now, that would be embarrassing

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