One day in Hollywood, as we were getting ready to leave for Maine, my friend Lorenzo Music (the voice of Carlton the doorman on television’s “Rhoda”) said to me, “If you’re thinking of coming back, don’t leave.”

Meaning, once you leave Hollywood, Hollywood forgets all about you.

Lorenzo was right, of course. But the truth is, I never really left.

Luckily, my job here now is reviewing films and television, and I’m grateful to have friends and family feeding me inside information.

But then Hollywood folks never really die, they just get a haircut and a new agent.

My sources now include my daughter, Jillana, one of a trio of agents in a top talent agency called Progressive Artists, whose offices are now located on “The Lot,” once the old Goldwyn Studios on the corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and Formosa Avenue. She feeds me gossip.

My other valuable contact, deep inside the daily hustle, is my son-in-law, Rick Sieloff.

After nine years as leadman with “Grey’s Anatomy,” Rick is currently finishing his fifth season as on-set decorator with “Snowfall,” a police drama set in the streets of L.A.

Now, Hollywood has always been thought of as “paradise,” but sadly, there is a darkness under the palm trees and Klieg lights.

IATSE guilds (International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts), of which this reviewer was once a member, are voting for an industrywide strike with over 98% support. It’s a bitter fight.

Of course, you probably ask, “Why should I care about Hollywood workers like this, who move in the glamorous world of show business, alongside the rich and beautiful people I watch on my home screen?”

“Alongside?” On the side and out of focus, is more like it.

Rick describes the strike move this way:

“It’s mostly about quality of life. Actors are guaranteed 12 hours off each day. Otherwise they’re put into a ‘forced call’ and will make double the money that day. We only get a guarantee of nine hours.

“You start on Friday evening and finish on Saturday morning, sometimes at daybreak.

“Then we have a 7 o’clock call on Monday. Companies like Netflix, Amazon, Hulu and Apple TV have what’s called a ‘sweetheart’ deal. They cry poor and get the crew, and sometimes the cast, at cut-rate deals, as in paying the crew the rate from three or four years ago. Then they won’t pay for the $10,000 to 100,000 worth of equipment that an individual needs for the job, plus not wanting to pay into the benefits program for the crew.

“I doubt that workers in Maine would feel sorry for us if they knew how much we make, because they see dollar signs, and they think it’s a glamorous job.

“I see people falling asleep behind the wheel after working multiple days of 12-plus hours, and dying.”

Here in Maine, She and I traded palm trees for birches long ago and we don’t regret it. But we’re still connected.

Hollywood is, I guess, “all in the family.”

J.P. Devine is a Waterville writer. 

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