In case you didn’t know, Sydney Pollack recently pass away…
July 1, 1934 - May 26 2008…

Sydney Pollack was an Academy Award-winning director, producer, actor,
writer and public figure, who directed and produced over 40 films.

Films include: Michael Claton, The Interpreter, The Firm, Tootsie, Three
Days of the Condor, The Way We Were, and many more..

I was in San Francisco performing when I heard about the death of
Sydney Pollack and I never got a chance to write about it.

I met Sydney Pollack at the Cinevegas Film Festival in Las Vegas in 2002.
This film festivals is getting to be among the bigger ones in the world…

Everyone that attends a film festival has a reason for being there.
There are movie Directors, Producers, Actors, Distribution and wanna bees…

Bottom line, you want to get distribution for your film.

These events are always filled with, dinner partys, cocktail partys, world
premiers and tons of networking.

There is a saying….
It’s not who you know, but who knows you!

Well I was at this one crowded cocktail party at the Paris Hotel on
the Strip. Several hundred people werein this one ballroom and I noticed a
crowd around one person.

At first I couldn’t make it out, then I realized, it was Sydney Pollack.
There were 50 -60 people around him. They had him boxed in and he could
hardly move…

Everyone was asking questions and for autographs…

I was there for networking and wanted meet others in the industry.
Sydney Pollack was on my list of people to meet some day…

Well here he was, in the middle of a crowd and he can’t seem to move…

I yelled out to him…”Sydney, what are you drinking?”
Sydney responded…” Scotch on The Rocks”.

I went to the bar and order 2 Scotch on the rocks.

Then I proceeded to go back to the crowded Sydney and say, excuse me
drinks for Mr. Pollack, excuse me drinks for Mr. Pollack…

The crowd made room for me to get to him and I handed him 2 Scotch
on the rocks, one for each hand.

He winked at me and said to the crowd…” Ok folks I’m done for today and as
you can see I can’t write anymore and my assitant has something important to tell me”…

With that, Sydney Pollack put his arm around my shoulder with a drink still in
his hand and whispered in my ear thanks for saving me kid.

We proceeded to walk down this long hallway at the Paris hotel and no
one else followed us. It was just me and him…

Halfway down the hallway, Sydny stops and asks me…
“Can I help you with anything? You got a script
you wanna run buy me?”

I shared that I was just getting into the industry and asked if it was ok to
call him in the future if I had a good script…

He said…
“Listen, you figured out how to get me out of
that crowd. You call me anytime.”

Well, that’s my Sydney Pollack Story…

Wouldn’t you know…I finally have a script For him!

Thanks For All The Movies Sydney…
For more information about Sydney Pollack To IMBD…
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001628/

Have a Great Day,
Robby LeBlanc

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