If you live in Los Angeles and don’t know who Tanna Frederick is, you probably haven’t driven down Sunset Boulevard sometime in the past few years. Her face has been plastered on the billboard in front of the complex that housed the now closed Sunset Laemmle theatres. Why, you ask? She is independent director Henry Jaglom’s de facto leading lady.  As I have often wondered who this woman on the billboard is, I jumped at the chance to speak with her about her relationship with Jaglom and her upcoming film, The M Word. And while Tanna has had what many aspiring actors must consider enviable success, it hasn’t gone to her head — her bubbly personality and natural charm make her utterly likable.

Tanna Frederick will star in indie film director Henry Jaglom‘s romantic comedy “The ‘M’ Word,” which begins principal photography November 28th in Los Angeles. Corey Feldman (Lost Boys), Michael Imperioli (The Sopranos) and Francis Fisher (Janie Jones) will co-star.

“The ‘M’ Word” will explore the themes of menopause, men and menses. It will Mark Frederick‘s fifth collaboration with Jaglom, the others being “Hollywood Dreams” “Irene in Time,”‘ “Queen of the Lot” and the upcoming film adaption of Jaglom’s hit play “Just 45 Minutes from Broadway” to be released next spring.

MASON CITY — Plans are being made for an independent film titled “The Farm” to be shot in North Iowa next fall.

The project is part of Project Cornlight, an initiative launched by Mason City native Tanna Frederick, who is now a Hollywood actress.

Project Cornlight is aimed at developing Iowa- based films and other projects that showcase Iowa talent and producing at least one independent film in Iowa per year.

I’ve been lucky. Over the years, I’ve experienced some wonderful interviews with the best, and occasionally worst, that the indie film world has to offer. I’ve interviewed a few widely known celebs, as well, including Patty Duke, Anthony Perkins, director Greg Mottola and even Larry the Cucumber. For the most part, perhaps owing to my more relaxed and conversational interview style, my interviews over the years have been awesome experiences. Every so often, an interview seems to transcend simply being an “interview” and becomes an authentic connection that lingers far past the confines of the actual interview. Names that instantly come to mind for me include writer/director Robert Zappia, character actor Googy Gress, actress/producer Tara Cardinal, screenwriter Andie Redwine and others.  Now, I can add to the list actress Tanna Frederick,

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The follow-up to his 2006 film Hollywood Dreams, Queen of the Lot picks up three years later with central character Maggie Chizek (Tanna Frederick), now calling herself Maggie Chase, having achieved a modest degree of success in B-movies as a kick ass martial arts heroine making action/adventure flicks of a rather cheesy nature. Maggie finds herself on house arrest, courtesy of two recent DUI arrests, but is determined to not let her clunky ankle bracelet keep her from climbing out of B-movies and into the upper echelon of Hollywood actresses.

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Reality and entertainment have always been inexorably entwined but in recent years the line that separates the two have blurred beyond recognition. The public’s intense infatuation with the personal lives of the rich and famous, the later term currently used in the broadest possible way, has become a billion dollar industry. There has always been a certain fascination held by the common throng to see the upper crust fall from their lofty perch. What once was propagated by means of gossip is now distributed through glossy magazines, television ‘entertainment news’ shows’ and more web sites that it’s possible to count. Henry Jaglom is a far from a relatively new auteur who is rapidly becoming one of the independent film community’s brightest filmmakers. He is building his well deserved reputation biting the hand that feeds his craft with frequently darkly hysterical results.

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Get your copy of

QUEEN OF THE LOT at these locations:

Amazon.com

Netflix.com (put it in your queue)

Blockbuster.com

B&N.com

Newburycomics.com

Familyvideo.com

Buy.com

Bestbuy.com

Breakingglasspictures.com

Frys Electronics

Barnes and Noble stores

Available in Canada in July
more to come…

As a sequel to the 2006 Hollywood Dreams, writer-director Henry Jaglom‘s seriocomedy Queen of the Lot resumes the chronicle of Maggie Chase, née Margie Chizek (Tanna Frederick). At the outset, aspiring actress Maggie lies in bed with her aunt Bee (Melissa Leo) and watches George Cukor‘s The Women on television, reflecting candidly that she longs to attain the status once held by Norma Shearer — “Queen of the Lot.” The narrative then leaps forward in time three years, to a point when Maggie has fulfilled her dreams of A-list stature, with lead roles in glossy action pictures. But accompanying the fame are salacious developments ripe for tabloid fodder: a DUI charge, a court-ordered ankle bracelet, and temporary house arrest for Maggie. Over the trajectory of the story, Maggie obtains permission from the cops to relocate to the home of her agent and his partner (Zack Norman and David Proval), after which she follows actor boyfriend Dov Lambert (Christopher Rydell) to the estate owned by his legendary Hollywood parents (Jack Heller and Kathryn Grant). At that house, Maggie also crosses paths with Dov’s brother, novelist-turned-screenwriter Aaron Lambert (Noah Wyle of ER), little realizing that this stranger may soon change her life.

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Henry Jaglom’s Queen of the Lot is an arty, eccentric, smart, eclectic, quirky, joyful, honest, parodic, sincere and beautiful look at some Hollywood folks who are, too. It walks a very interesting line between realistic drama and over-the-top comedy to produce a compelling and eminently watchable love story/fame story.

The great Tanna Frederick plays Maggie Chase, a newly minted Hollywood star with her action films, the “Red Wrecker” series, of which the latest, and most complimented was Red Wrecker III, which features, in clips shown in the film, Frederick kung fu fighting with people dressed as seventies street hoods in the stunning location of a storefront martial arts studio. It’s wonderful. Miss Chase is obviously also now the target of frenzied papparazzi attention, and has been required by the court to wear an ankle bracelet monitor after a drunken driving incident.

If you don’t love this film already, I can’t help you.

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