LA Meet Up Group: Women Who Write
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I recently started attending Vicki Abelson’s renowned, celebrity-driven literary salon called “Women Who Write.” This group of women have been meeting up with celebrities of all sorts for the past 5 years, getting to know the personal details and creative secrets of some of the most incredible names in Hollywood! These women are songwriters, poets, authors, actresses, moms and rock stars… literally! They are the coolest group of women I have yet to find here in LA (besides my best friends of course!). And while I may be the youngest one in the bunch, I don’t mind one bit.
I attended one of these Meet Ups a couple months back when Stephen Collins was the featured celebrity guest. After watching him on 7th Heaven for years as a child, it was surreal to get to hangout with him. You can read that post here. I decided to go again this past Tuesday because Vicki had been trying to get Kevin Pollack to speak to the group FOREVER and she was finally able to get him to agree! She is pretty awesome.
These Meet Ups always begin like a huge family reunion. Everyone is talking, hugging, laughing and eating, definitely making for a inviting environment. What is especially cool about all this is that the celebrity guest hangs out just like everyone else, giving you the chance to get to know them as a person.
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Once everyone has had their fill and takes a seat, Vicki comes to the “stage,” aka. the only empty spot in her living room. She talks a bit about a book she is working on, gets everyone all excited about celebrity guest prospects for the future and always makes it a point to celebrate those in the group who have accomplished something in pursuit of their dreams.
Once Vicki has said her schpiel, she announces the guest band who will be opening for us that day (seriously, it’s awesome). This time is was Michael De Barres, hugely popular in the 80’s, he wrote the song “Obsession,” (you can’t miss this music video) later made famous by Animotion, and even opened for bands like Duran Duran. At almost 70 years old, he still sings like a rockstar and I am telling you, there is not one of those little ladies who wasn’t swooning over him. You can watch a video I recorded of him playing “Obsession” here.
Once our concert has come to an end, Vicki returns to the stage to introduce our guest speaker for day, today it was Kevin Pollack. I had had a chance to chat briefly with Kevin when I arrived and couldn’t help but notice what a genuinely kind and “feel good” person he was. He took to the stage with a smile and his book, “How I Slept My Way to the Middle.” He told an incredible story about working with Tom Cruise on the set of A Few Good Men, and even let us in on how he impersonates Christopher Walken. He was completely hilarious and his book is full of these jaw dropping encounters he has had over the years.
Our next MeetUp will probably take place in another few weeks or so, I can’t wait to see who we’ll get to hangout with then 🙂
