Manifesting the Movie Star - Sneak Peek

WHEN HE LIFTED his head from between her legs there was a look on his face that just exuded cool. I was twelve the first time I saw Romancing the Stone, and this scene— well, I must have watched it a hundred times.

I’m not sure I truly grasped the undertones. I certainly knew about sex. I was even vaguely aware of blowjobs, although I was years away from experiencing one. But the concept that oral sex was something men did to women as well? I hadn’t quite pieced that part of the puzzle together yet.

While I may not have known what cunnilingus was, I knew this much: the fact that the movie’s hero just slid down a mud-hill and landed with his face right in the most private area of this sexy blonde, and then lifted his head, hair dripping wet, and simply grinned at her—that was fucking cool.

It was the first time I remember thinking: I want to be like Michael Douglas.

Just be yourself. We are told this all our lives. But nobody ever questions this notion. What does it mean? Be yourself.

How do we actually know who we are? The most common answer is: we are a product of our environment. Our family and friends play a role in shaping us, as do our life experiences. But for some reason, we leave out what might be the biggest contributor: the media we choose to absorb.

I was born in 1975. Both my parents worked full-time and I, unapologetically, spent a lot of time time watching TV as a kid. My family got our first VCR in 1984, and for the next fifteen years, I spent more time walking up and down aisles at the video store than just about anywhere else.

My sister was infatuated with Tom Cruise, so Top Gun, Days of Thunder and Cocktail were all staples in our viewing diet. Our generation was wedged between Star Wars and Indiana Jones, so there was no shortage of Harrison Ford on our TV. We grew up in an Italian neighborhood. My buddies were all into mafia movies. Pacino and De Niro were held on a pedestal within our group.

Violence and drugs weren’t my prime areas of interest. I was fascinated by money, power, women and, perhaps more than anything else, sex. If those were your interests in the late 80s and early 90s, it was a no-brainer: Michael Douglas was the actor for you.