Emma and Me

I can't believe that in all the time I spent in Scottsdale, AZ. I never ran across Emma Stone.

Emma is the ravishing redhead who won an Oscar for best actress in 'La La Land' at the recent Academy Awards.

She grew up in Scottsdale, went to school there, did some plays and musicals with the Phoenix Valley Youth Theater.

While she was becoming an actress, I was traveling across the Valley of the Sun, playing poker at Wild Horse Pass near Chandler and Talking Stick Casino just outside Scottsdale.

And I never met her.

I even enrolled my grandchildren with a talent agency just outside Scottsdale. The kids had their photos taken there and attended a couple of presentations. Nothing much was done and they didn't return to the place.

According to her biographical sheet, Emma suffered anxiety attacks as a child and overcame them by acting and playing roles in improvising comedy skits. From the time she was old enough to think, she knew she wanted to act in television and movies.

Her father, Jeffrey, owned a general contracting company in Scottsdale. She has a younger brother, Spencer. And for an award-winning actress, she is level headed and well grounded.

At 14, she made up her mind: she wanted to go to Los Angeles and study acting. And she wanted her mother to go with her.

Emma put together a presentation, which included a song by Madonna. It was so impressive she convinced her parents to let her make the effort.

She promised school officials she would attend home schooling and mother and daughter moved to Los Angeles. There she started going on audition after audition. Every time one came up involving a daughter, Emma tried out for it. She also got a part-time job in a bakery that made gourmet dog biscuits.

She was rejected for all the parts.

The feisty child-woman would not give up. She dyed her blond hair red, tried out for another part, and was accepted. She learned to sing and dance. She took acting lessons from a man who had been part of the William Morris talent agency.

Today at 28, Emma Stone is one of the highest paid actresses in Hollywood. Her future is limitless. She is close to her family, has a boy friend, and is part of a galaxy of talent that knows no bounds.

I still have not met her. But if she reads this, I would like to make her acquaintance and teach her to play poker. That should be enough for beginners. I could write a screenplay about a young girl from, say, Scottsdale, AZ., who learns to play poker and who becomes involved in a major poker tournament with a big first prize of a million and....well, you get the picture.

Emma, drop me a line. And let the games begin.