Friday, June 26, 2015

Hollywood, baby!

Yesterday morning I received an email from a friend up in Ontario, Canada. She had just seen the movie "I'll See You In My Dreams" which just came out to theaters in the last few weeks.

 "Hi Owen 
I think I saw your mugs in a movie the other night- I saw you in my Dreams !!! Best part of the movie for me!!!!"

So I did a little digging on the web search engines. I found out that indeed my mugs are in a major movie. Pretty cool! I have no idea how those mugs came into the hands of the movie studio and subsequently found themselves being used in a scene featuring Blythe Blanner and Mary Kay Place.

I wonder how those mugs got there! A couple of years ago I recall sending a box of small mugs (the same size mugs that are in the movie) to a commercial production studio in Los Angeles by express service, to be used as props in a AmEx commercial that was supposed to air nation wide. So I wonder if those mugs went into a prop storage facility in Hollywood, and someone saw them and thought they would be good in this scene. Who knows, though. I sell a lot of mugs. I never did see that commercial and don't know if it was ever made or aired.

At any rate, here is a screen capture and link to the clip where the mugs appear. I don't know if there are other scenes as I have not seen the movie yet.

There's a 30 second commercial you have to suffer through to see the clip. (That's what the mute key was designed for!)

Thanks to Lakshmi for tipping me off, and if anyone knows someone who knows someone, and can let me know how these mugs ended up in a movie I would be thrilled to find out.

I do wonder if Sam Elliot, who also stars in the movie has anything to do with this. He is seen from time to time around Central Oregon and I know that a mutual friend gave him one of my mugs a year or so ago. Who knows? Anyone?

[UPDATE July 2, 2015]

I tried really hard to get hold of the production company to see if they would both a) verify that the mugs in the movie were indeed made by me and b) tell me how the mugs ended up in the movie. One of my e-mails got to someone who knew someone! And now, the mystery is solved.

I just received the following e-mail:

Owen-
I'm happy to hear that you saw our film! I purchased these mugs from you a couple of years ago for an AMEX commercial (remember we had to pester you for overnight delivery).
Anyway we ended up not using them in that spot, but they did end up being used at my house...;-) 
When it came time for me to design this film I pulled a lot of personal belongings to use as props because of the nature (budget) of our little movie. 
I think they add a lot and I'm happy that you noticed.
Thank YOU for making such amazing mugs.
Cheers
Eric

So, mystery solved, and my wife, who is a huge fan of Gwyneth Paltrow is thrilled that Gwyneth's mother Blythe Danner used one of my mugs.

Harrison Ford also has one of my mugs but that's a story for another day.