2 posts tagged “jade's pa”

I know I'm skipping way ahead of myself as far as Jade's PA is concerned but apparently there is a lot of noise on internet websites that the final episode of Jade's PA was rigged.

It was not rigged.  Rebecca McCormick won fair and square.

Hiring a PA is partly skill and partly personality preference.  Jade picked the PA she felt she could get on with on a daily basis.  Why is that so hard to believe?

I personally would have picked any of the top three for a PA (not that I need one)....in fact there were a couple in the bottom seven that  would be happy with too!

Jade's PA was edited, as are all TV shows, to show the most provocative parts of people's personality. I must say, Rob and I look a bit boring compared to our real personalities, but we were there to look professional, but like the nutty characters we can be.

I was watching the audition episode of Jade's PA which I received from the head of LIVINGtv.  30 hours of auditions pared down to a one hour episode left a lot of exciting stuff out.  Unfortunately it also left stuff in that I'd rather not see....like that shirt I was wearing!  Yikes!  Was I smoking crack before dressing myself?  Not one person pulled me aside and said, "Ahem, Heather, put your jacket on and suffer the heat.  That shirt looks obscene!"

One funny thing about the first day of auditions.....my driver pulls up in front of the girl's school where we were filming at Tavistock Square, after just informing me that the bombings from last years partly happened where we were.  the bus that was bombed blew up feet from where I stood.  I was shocked and saddened and came out of the car looking like that. 

Not knowing where I was or where I was to go, I look down the street and there is a LONG line of PA potentials waiting to audition. I walked past them and to the front of the line and tempers started to flare. 

Who was I to "queue jump?"  I was cutting in line. 

I must still have that PA vibe about me because there was no way I was going to be allowed to cut the line and go toward the front.

"The line starts back there.  We were here first," I was politely told  y a Jade's PA wannabe.

Okay, I have this Aquarius sun sign with a Scorpio rising and it does make a bit of bitchiness come into play occasionally.

I looked the contestant dead in the eye.  "I know.  I'm going to be judging you."

Now that was not necessary but I did it anyway.  First off, what numbskull of a PA wannabe is going to be dragging her 11-year old son into an audition with her?  Certainly not me.  And yes, once in awhile I can get pissy.

And funny enough, the PA contestant questioning my queue jumping made the security question me.  The 6' 7" fright of a guard from Trojan Security Services (I had to laugh because "Trojans" in America are rubbers, condoms or what do they call them in the UK, durexes?) looked at me questioningly like I was duping him.  I raised me eyebrows at him with all the defensiveness I could muster.  I guess I convinced him that I was indeed a judge because he eventually showed me through to makeup.

Okay, off I go for today.  more later now that I'm back up and running.

So, back to London.

The first week we were there, the production company making Jade's PA decided that they would have a dinner so all the cast could meet before we actually went into production. 

I got a cab to a restaurant called.....oh my, what was the name, Hotel Charlotte?  I think.  All I remember was being late (because the car that was supposed to pick me up never arrived.....foretelling many incidents like this to come) and walking in to the most crowded restaurant I'd ever seen.  Nothing like being thousands of miles away from home, not knowing a soul, and being late to boot.

I finally found the table and met Jade, her boyfriend Jack, my co-star judge, Dr. Rob Yeung and a few of the other above-the-lines from Ruggie Media.  Sitting next to Jack who is all of 19 years old made me feel old and decrepit.  He barely spoke and it was so loud I couldn't hear anyone else.  So, I sat at the table, smiled alot, shook my head, laughed when everyone else did and somehow scraped through the night.  The bottles of wine being passed around helped....couldn't hear a thing but felt good anyway.

Toward the end of the night, my son was brought to the restaurant by a young blonde who had taken him to the movies.  After all the goodbyes and see you laters, Jade hugged me goodbye and said into my ear, "Thank you for coming here to help me find an assistant."

That I could hear.

Jade was a delight.  All my worries about the monster the press had created melted away and I found out very quickly that I got on with her wonderfully.  And after working with her the first couple days, i saw that she didn't have the formal education and opportunities others had but she had smarts (not only street smart) that alot of other people don't have.  I still have trouble putting that intelligence into words but I can feel it.  She can identify and understand people in a way that's quite difficult for most people.

True, she had never heard the word, "construction" and she couldn't remember the name of her car that was almost repossessed...she kept calling it a "lorry" but meant Ferrari.  I was so shocked by this I was convinced she was making it up.  I soon found out she wasn't.  She had no idea what charisma was or how to spell it even though she has a ton of it.

After living in Hollywood for decades and dealing with folks who knew everything and would, God forbid, ever let on that they didn't know something, Jade was a breath of fresh air.  Not an ounce of pretense in her.   I knew from then on that we would do very well.

 I was right.